Ratas: Adding stops to Rail Baltic needs to be examined
According to Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Center), at present the plan is to build three Rail Baltic train stops on the Estonian section of the Rail Baltic project, but more thorough analysis was needed to determine whether or not increasing that number would make sense.
“I also think there is no point in a railway if people can only board at Ülemiste [in Tallinn], and then the next stop is Riga,” Ratas said on Monday answering MPs questions in the Riigikogu. According to Ratas, the project in its present shape includes three stops—Ülemiste, Rapla, and Pärnu. “As far as I know, the maximum number of stops there could be is 11, so we can add 8 more,” he said.
But this also meant that the project would cost more, as a single train stop cost around €10m, Ratas pointed out.
According to preliminary studies, the cost of the railway’s upkeep is about €10m a year, and up to this amount there would be no need for additional support out of the state budget for its maintenance.
Building Rail Baltic and its infrastructure is estimated to cost around €4.8bn, to which Estonia will contribute €1.3bn.
A draft government order passed around among decision makers led to speculation earlier on Monday that Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were about to sign a more comprehensive agreement over the countries’ obligations in the project.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS, ERR