All three Baltic States have poorly developed railway system. On top of that, the countries’ railway infrastructure is very poorly connected to other countries, as concluded in the monthly “Connection Failed” study by Greenpeace.
The study analysed existing and potentially direct railway connections between the biggest European cities as compared to air connections. In total, the study analysed 990 routes between 45 biggest European cities, including Baltic cities.
Greenpeace notes that Riga has a direct railway connection only with Vilnius. This train route was introduced only recently and courses once a day in both directions. Tallinn, however, does not have a direct connection with either of the two aforementioned cities. However, there is still an option to travel by train to Riga, using local trains, which does require long transfers at border stations.
At the same time, Vilnius is directly connected by train with Warsaw, but taking into account, for example, the different track gauges, a train change is required at the border station. The study also states that there are no night trains available in the Baltic States.
In general, due to the poor state of the railways in the Baltic States, the number of cities that can be reached by train in 18 hours is relatively low.
From Riga and Tallinn it is currently possible to reach three cities. Vilnius has connections to eight cities. Greenpeace notes that the most notable problem is the lack of a day train connecting Tallinn and Riga.
The study mentions that with moderate investment into railway infrastructure, ensuring and average speed of 80 km/h on all railway routes, it will be possible to ensure passengers from Riga and Vilnius can reach nine other cities in Europe, including Hamburg, Munich and Zagreb within 18 hours.
Meanwhile, extensive railway construction works are currently underway in the Baltic States in the Rail Baltica project, which aims to connect all three countries with Poland until 2030, which would allow more cities to be connected by train in the future.
Overall, the study concluded that 114, or 12%, of the 990 routes analysed between European cities were directly connected by rail, while 69% of the total routes were direct flights, which showed that European transport infrastructure still encouraged people to choose flights over trains, despite the much more harmful environmental impact of aviation. It is also noted that none of the cities analysed in the study is making full use of the potential for the provision of direct train services.
Greenpeace invites European countries and government to increase investments into railway infrastructure in order to increase the number of direct train connections in Europe. The organisation also notes that flights are more harmful to the environment than trains. (BNN)