Lithuania intends to electrify the entire East-West railway corridor, from Belarus border to Klaipėda. By using EU financing, the project will be completed until 2022. According to the Ministry of Transport, the value of the project is EUR 349.1 million, of which EUR 224.1 million is the planned investment from the EU Cohesion Fund, and the remaining funds will be allocated by Lithuanian Railways.
Between 2015 and 2017, Lithuania carried out the first phase of the project which envisaged the electrification of a 28.6 km linking Kena on the border of Belarus to Naujoji Vilnia.
The electrification works will continue to Klaipėda direction and the design work for the remaining sections will be started this year and the electrification work will be carried out between 2019 and 2022.
Under the project, it is planned to electrify Vilnius railway junction – 34 km of Vilnius bypass – by connecting it to the already electrified Vilnius–Kaunas section. This section will be adapted for the train traffic at the speed of 160 km/h.
It is also planned to electrify Kaišiadorys–Radviliškis section of 125 km and Radviliškis–Klaipėda section of 196 km. In these sections, an electrical contact network, new traction substations will be installed, railway station control systems will be replaced, and the control safety level will be increased. The contact network will be adapted for train speeds up to 250 km/h.
The railway line from the Lithuanian and Belarusian border to Klaipėda is part of the international IXB transport corridor. For Lithuanian Railways, the transport on this route accounts for about three quarters of the rail freight turnover and two thirds of the passenger traffic. It is anticipated that the performed electrification work will increase the efficiency of activity even more.
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