Transport Minister Eugenijus Sabutis believes that it is realistic to build the Rail Baltica European standard-gauge railway between Lithuania and Poland until 2030.
In Latvia and Estonia, however, the line is likely to be completed later.
“First of all, the question we have to answer is whether this is realistic in Lithuania and Poland. It’s important to have it at least in Lithuania until 2030,” Sabutis told the Ziniu Radijas radio on January 16.
According to the minister, this project is critical for national security.
“We are looking at it especially through the prism of national security. Both the president and I have underlined that the main point we must focus on is not just freight transport, not just passenger transport, but especially the transport of military goods using Rail Baltica,” Sabutis said.
“Looking at it through this lens, 2030 is truly a critical deadline and the target we must work toward,” he added.
Sabutis noted that Poland had already announced a contractor tender for a 100-kilometre section of Rail Baltica between Bialystok and Elk.
“In Poland it was announced last week. I believe that the 100-kilometre section from Bialystok to Elk will be built, and from Elk to the Lithuanian border, there isn’t that much left,” he said
Polish media reported on January 7 that a subsidiary of Poland’s railway infrastructure company PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe had launched a tender to select the contractor for the modernisation of the 100-kilometre section between Bialystok and Elk. The project is estimated to cost around 6 billion zloty (1.32 billion euros) and is expected to be completed until 2029.
Sabutis, who took office as Lithuania’s transport minister last month, also said that he planned to discuss the further development of the Rail Baltica project with his Latvian and Estonian counterparts soon.
In December 2024 Latvian prosecutors launched an investigation into the possible misuse of public funds allocated to Rail Baltica.
A special parliamentary commission in Latvia found that gross negligence and unapproved project changes had led to the quadrupling of costs from less than 6 billion euros to nearly 24 billion euros.
The Rail Baltica line between the capitals of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was originally scheduled for completion in 2025. However, the date has been pushed back to 2030 amid soaring costs and major delays.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania still have Soviet-era broad-gauge railways. (LRT)