In the new future, Lithuania will receive another EUR 191 million of EU investment for the upcoming works of Rail Baltica. On June 21, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the project’s coordinator Catherine Trautmann signed a joint declaration on the implementation of the Rail Baltica project.
Lithuania plans to invest the received funds in the deployment of the European rail traffic signalling and management system and related communications in a railway section between the Lithuanian-Polish border and Kaunas. The European gauge from Kaunas (Palemonas) will be extended northwards – a 55 km railway bed will built and the necessary infrastructure such as bridges, viaducts, culverts will be installed.
More attention has been recently given to a dialogue with Poland concerning the adjustment of technical parameters. A European-standard gauge track between the Lithuanian-Polish border and Kaunas has already been built but the rail infrastructure on the stretch between the Lithuanian-Polish border and Warsaw is in a poor state, with a speed limit of just 30km/h at some points. The speed on this track should be increased in the future. Meanwhile, in the territory of Lithuania trains are expected to run at a maximum speed of 240km/h.
An agreement was also signed with Latvia and Estonia and RB Rail AS on the administration of EU funds allocated for the project’s implementation. The agreement established common principles, procedures and arrangements regulating the use of EU funds in the project’s implementation.
The first stage of the construction of Rail Baltica, worth of EUR 364.5 million, was completed in autumn last year and involved the building of a 120 km European-standard railway line and the renovation of an existing broad gauge track.
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