Rail Baltic Estonia OÜ Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Anvar Salomets told ERR that Zaha Hadid Architects and OÜ Esplan, who won the design tender for Ülemiste Joint Terminal, will begin design work in the first quarter of 2020, as soon as the contract has been signed. This is expected to take place in January.

At the beginning of 2019, Rail Baltic acquired a 16-unit garage located on the future site of the terminal. Whether or not more private property will have to be acquired for its construction will become clear once the design solution itself is complete, Salomets said.

Last year, the Union of Estonian Automobile Enterprises (EAL) submitted a proposal to the minister of economic affairs and infrastructure to relocate Tallinn Bus Station to Ülemiste, however Tallinn city government found at the time that the bus station should remain at its current location on Lastekodu tänav. Whether or not the capital city's central bus station will ultimately be relocated to Ülemiste remains unclear to this day, the CTO admitted.

"It's true that the designers have to include a possible bus terminal as part of the joint terminal on the initial sketch level," he explained. "What decisions are made regarding the location of the current bus station aren't for us to say, unfortunately. The current bus station is privately owned, and these decisions are made elsewhere. This possibility nonetheless needs to be provided for in the design and taken into account."

The entire terminal must be fully ready to use by 2026 — in time for the completion of the remainder of Rail Baltic infrastructure.

Construction of the terminal will cost €40 million, according to Kristjan Kaunissaare, project coordinator for Rail Baltica at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

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