Rail Baltica decisions based on haste and calculation of unknown origin - Kulbergs

RIGA - The strategic decision on how the Rail Baltica route will be built is based on haste and calculation of unknown origin, the chairman of the Rail Baltica parliamentary investigation commission, MP Andris Kulbergs (United List), said today.

The parliamentary commission on Thursday questioned the invitees for four hours about when and how the idea for the so-called "Riga loop" of Rail Baltica came about.

Kulbergs has previously said that the Rail Baltica project "went off the rails" in 2013-2014, when an alternative solution was being developed that does not appear in the key project documents.

Originally, a simplified basic line was envisaged, connecting the Baltic countries and their capitals to the Rail Baltica railway, with a single branch to Riga railway station and back. This was estimated at the time to cost around EUR 1.2 billion.

But in 2016, another proposal for a "Riga Loop", involving Riga Airport and other points, reached the government. It was created in 2013, following an alternative assessment that was outsourced. Such a solution would cost around EUR 2 billion.

As Kulbergs said today at the commission meeting, the government at the time made its decision on the basis of an informative report, which did not include financial, impact assessment and other possible offers and solutions.

Kaspars Vingris, then project manager of the Ministry of Transport's Railways Department and former chairman of the board of Eiropas Dzelzcela Linijas, responsible for the construction of Rail Baltica in Latvia, replied that at that time processes and decisions were taking place in parallel, sometimes even ahead of each other.

"In Latvia, until now, there was no experience of how the responsible ministries cooperate with the government, and there was no specific way of making decisions and controlling projects," said Vingris, arguing that the situation today is the same as ten years ago, as there is still no clear accountability and decision-making mechanism. Back then, all parallel processes were geared towards starting procurement for specific activities as soon as possible, Vingris said.

He stressed that the data included in the report came from several sources, not only from the national study. He said that figures were not "taken from one source and republished elsewhere" - they were verified with other outsourced providers.

"We are today in a situation where there are concrete consequences and obligations from this decision [to create a "Riga Loop"], because we have no further funding for this project," stressed the head of the commission, saying that such concerns had previously been expressed by the State Audit Office, but had been ignored.

Kaspars Ozolins, former State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, is expected to be invited to the hearing next week.