The European Union will co-finance with EUR 1.4 Million, by means of the TEN-T Programme, a preliminary feasibility study for the purpose of extending Latvia’s railway network. The project begins in March this year and will be completed in September 2014.
The preliminary study, whose beneficiary is the national railway company in Latvia, aims at executing the electrification of an important corridor on the east-west link, Rezekne and Daugavlis to Riga, Jelgava, Tukums and Ventspils. The Latvian corridor has a direct connection to Rail Baltica.
According to the project to be co-financed by the Commission, the technical specification will be elaborated for the design and construction tender. The preliminary study essentially provides the review of the feasibility study in order to establish the optimal technical solution for electrification, 1×25 kV or 2x25kV, then the preliminary study of the chosen technical solution, as well as the evaluation of the environmental impact and the preparation of the investment plan for this project.
The total cost of the project reaches EUR 2.838 Billion, out of which 1.4 will represent the EU’s contribution. The electrification of the east-west railway branch ensures to Latvia the improvement of the operation speed and the trains’ reliability, as well as the connection to Rail Baltica, the most important corridor of the three Baltic States, which will have a 1435-mm gauge, thus offering them a unitary connection to the rest of Europe.
Within a conference on the subject of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) of October 2nd, 2012, the European Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas, mentioned that Rail Baltica is a part of the main transport projects which could be successfully implemented through CEF financing.
Latvia has announced that after taking over the presidency of the Baltic Assembly and of the Baltic Council of Ministers, takeover which took place in the first month of this year, the priorities will include the facilitation of the regional competitiveness, the stimulation of the business environment, the consolidation of the cooperation with northern countries and the development of the regional scale energy and transport infrastructure. According to the government in Riga, the announcement was made in November last year by the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs, on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Baltic Council in Vilnius.
Among the most important challenges for the three Baltic countries is the development of transport infrastructure, as well as its compatibility with the European infrastructure.
Under the circumstances, Rinkēvičs called on their counterparts not to delay the execution of the reconstruction projects for the railway sections Mažeikiai-Reņģe and Mažeikiai-Vaiņode.
Latvia is one of the three Baltic States which experiences progressive increases of the railway traffic, especially of the freight traffic, during last year.
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