The most recent construction contract related to the Rail Baltica project was signed last week with Verstoni and Järelpinge Engineering, who will build the €107 million main line sections in Kohila and Rapla municipalities. Construction work will start this year.

Contracts have now been signed for the construction work on the foundations of three sections of the Rail Baltica route and the associated intersections. In total, this covers 21 kilometers, or approximately a tenth of the total Estonian section of the route. Construction on the first sections will start in spring and summer this year and continue until the second half of 2027.

Tendering processes are currently underway in relation to a further 50 kilometers of the main line. The companies who will get to work on those sections are expected to be confirmed by this summer at the latest, in order for construction to also get underway this year, Anvar Salomets, head of Rail Baltic Estonia (RBE), told ERR.

What is currently being built on the route?

The construction work does not mean railway lines are being laid down or contact lines are being built.

On these sections, it is the so-called foundations, which are being built. These include the embankments, various crossings, or eco-ducts, road viaducts, railway bridge-viaducts, traffic nodes; as well as power networks, noise barriers and small livestock fences.

Where foreseen, preparations will be made for the construction of regional stops in these sections. Elements of future traffic management systems and the contact network that will form part of the embankment, including mast foundations, cable ducts, etc., will also be constructed.

Railway and power lines as well as the necessary traffic control systems are already being procured or will be procured separately in the future as part of subsequent tendering processes, Salomets said.

Not all of the Estonian section has been designed yet

Although construction tenders are trickling in, designs for the entire Estonian section of Rail Baltica in Estonia have not yet been produced. There are a number of reasons for this, including a court decision to reject designs for a 40-kilometer section of the line in southern Pärnu County.

Salomets said the slower pace of the design process at this stage, when work on more than a third of Estonia's main route has either already been contracted out or is under construction, will not have a major impact.

"Of course, it would be great if the entire design phase had been finalized, but with projects as large as Rail Baltica, you have to be adaptable and flexible in order to deal with different phases at the same time," he said.

Less than half of private land has been acquired

Not all of the land needed for the project has yet been purchased by the Estonian state. The acquisition of the required land is being carried out by the Land Board, with Salomets explaining that around 40 percent of privately owned land has now been acquired.

However, building rights are in place for over 50 percent of the Rail Baltica route, including parts on state land. According to Salomets, this percentage is increasing by the week.

Salomets added that the procurement strategy for the construction of the main route is currently going through changes. This means there is a move towards an alliance, or cooperative, procurement model.

"At the end of the year, we want to announce the first alliances, which will enable us to launch a tender for the very substantial works related to the main construction of the railway, as well as for the construction of the foundations on the route south of Tootsi," Salomets said.

Construction of Ülemiste terminal building to start next year

The first phase of work in Ülemiste is currently under way, which involves the removal of the old rail lines and the building of underground structures. This year, Rail Baltic Estonia intends to launch a call for tenders to construct the terminal's access and passageways, as well as public squares and the terminal building itself.

According to current plans, the Ülemiste terminal will be completed in 2028 or 2029, a year or two before trains are expected to start running on the new line. However, Salomets said the terminal will not be completely idle until then.

"Even though there will not be any traffic on Rail Baltica at that time, trains currently going east and southeast will still pass through Ülemiste and be able to make use of the functionality of the new terminal. In addition to that, tram and bus services will also be connected at this transport hub," he said.

The tender process for the terminal building is set to be launched this year, with construction likely to start in 2025.

The next steps involve the construction of the Pärnu passenger and freight terminal and maintenance center, the Ülemiste rolling stock depot and the Muuga freight station, Salomets said.

Twelve regional stops

In addition to the Ülemiste terminal in Tallinn and the passenger terminal in Pärnu, there will be a further twelve stops on the Estonian section of the Rail Baltica route. Regional trains running between Tallinn and Riga will also stop there, including at the Pärnu passenger terminal.

The stops will be located in Assaku, Luige, Kurtna, Saku, Kohila, Rapla, Järvakandi, Kaisma, Tootsi, Urge, Surju and Häädemeeste. For the latter two, the exact locations will be determined once the regional plan for southern Pärnu County has been updated.

These stops will be built together with the main railway line. Regional trains calling at these stops should begin running along with international trains from day one.

However, as the regional stops will be addressed as part of the designs as a whole, which also include station buildings, ancillary services and parking facilities, it is possible that everything will be completed after 2030. That is, after the train service is already up and running.

"However, everything that is needed to make the rail service work, to get people on and off the trains, will be done in the first phase. This will also create the platforms needed to operate regional train services once the foundations of the railway have been laid." Salomets said.

Detailed planning procedures and preliminary design work on these regional stops is currently underway almost everywhere along the Rail Baltica Estonia route.

Trains must start running in 2030

Rail Baltica must be able to transport goods and passengers by 2030, regardless of whether a main line connection to Riga's central railway station is in place by then, Catherine Trautmann, the European Commission's coordinator for the North Sea-Baltic core network corridor, told Latvian Radio.

According to Salomets, from a purely technical perspective, that would be feasible. However, everything else that happens outside the design and construction and testing phase is rather unpredictable.

"In principle, it is of course true that goods and passengers will be able to move during the first years of Rail Baltica without there being a direct connection to Riga Central Station. However, it is clear that Rail Baltica will have to come up with at least some kind of alternative solution for those years, so that passengers can also reach Riga by train. As far as we know, our Latvian colleagues are working hard on a solution for this so-called first phase," he said.

It is also true that a fully functional solution for passengers and freight has to be ready by 2030, Salomets added. As this is just under six years away, this means that, when Rail Baltica is first completed, it will comprise a single pair of tracks, and will remain so for a period of ten years.

"By 2030, the basic construction of the railway will be completed in a way and with parameters that allow for the addition of a second pair of rails during the next phase. In the first decade, the absence of this will have no impact on the speed, quality, safety or comfort of the service. On the other hand, for a project of this size, it is an operational decision regarding whether to add the second track in part or in full. These choices can be made in the coming years on the basis of even more precise information," Salomets said, adding that decisions will depend, for example, on construction costs and transportation forecasts.

At the moment, it is still estimated that the Estonian section of Rail Baltica will cost €3 billion. "But as we can see from our construction tenders, competition is very intense on the market, and the best bids for certain tenders come in below the price levels we had assumed," Salomets said.

Finns show strong interest in freight transport

Whether freight will be transported on Rail Baltica, and if so, how much, has been the subject of hot debate for years. Now that rail freight transport has, for obvious reasons, dried up in Estonia, Rail Baltic is still planning to start carrying freight, and the Finns are very interested.

"We have quite a lot of contacts with shippers, logistics operators and representative organizations, including our northern neighbors. Their assessment and frequent question is whether our railways will have enough capacity, with intimation being that there could be plenty of freight coming from the north to our railways," Salomets said.

"The vast majority of the goods that will also be moving along the 213 km of Rail Baltica to Estonia will not be locally produced or even produced in the Baltics, but transit goods," he added.

According to Salomets, goods are already moving, just along other corridors, and once Rail Baltica is complete, the existing freight transport structure will change.

"At the same time, no one can provide a precise amount in tonnes right now, because we do not know exactly what the regulations will be for freight transport in 2030 and beyond, how costly competing modes of transport will become, what will happen to global supply chains, or how the Green Deal will affect the transport sector," Salomets said.

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