Rail Baltic coordinator says extra stops in Estonia being analyzed

  • 2017-01-25
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN – Adding additional stops on the Estonian part of the route of the Rail Baltic European-gauge railway is being analyzed at the moment, and the stops could be funded from the EU Cohesion Fund or by Estonia itself.

At present, the project includes three stops in Estonia -- Tallinn, Rapla, and Parnu. According to a coordinator of the project in Estonia, Kristjan Kaunissaare, county governors have proposed adding eight stops on the route.

"We will definitely analyze the locations of stops. We have taken these into account in planning and preliminary designs. Stops need special conditions, for instance, they have to be located on long, straight railway sections," Kaunissaare said on Tuesday at a press briefing.

Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas said last Monday that at present the plan is to build three Rail Baltic train stops on the Estonian part of the European-gauge railway, but it should be analyzed more thoroughly whether it would be reasonable to build more.

"I also think that there is not point in a railway if people can only board at Ulemiste [in Tallinn] and the next stop is Riga," Ratas said when answering to MPs questions in the Riigikogu. According to Ratas the Rail Baltic project at present includes three stops -- Ulemiste, Rapla, and Parnu. "As far as I know the maximum stops there can be is 11, so we can add 8 more," he added.

But this also means that the project will cost more as one train stop costs around 10 million euros, Ratas said. He added that it has been agreed by now that the funding period for Rail Baltic's construction is 2019-2025.