Around 500 kilometers of Estonian Railways-operated rail track between Tallinn and Tartu and between Tapa and Narva is being electrified as part of the state's drive to reduce CO2 emissions.

While the Tartu line was initially scheduled for completion by the end of last year, the deadline has now been pushed to next summer.

Speaking to Monday's edition of "Terevisioon," Estonian Railways board chair Kaido Zimmermann said: "If we are talking about the Tartu route, we hope to have all the work completed in the second quarter of next year."

Zimmermann added that while they had hoped to complete the major work last year, it was postponed for various reasons, including Tartu's status as European Capital of Culture last year.

"Since Tartu was the capital of culture, people wanted to travel there, and we couldn't make as many interruptions to train traffic as originally planned. Similarly, we had to let through oil trains brought into Estonia, plus NATO trains. As a result, a lot of work was pushed into this year," Zimmermann went on.

Rail work can only be carried out in the warmer months, he added, meaning everything was on hold during the winter, waiting for the ground to thaw. Work resumed in April, with the aim of completing the major works on the Tartu route by September 1.

While the NATO and oil trains issue might have been unforeseeable, the culture capital one was not – Tartu won the award back in 2019 – so, "Terevisioon" host Katrin Viirpalu noted, why was this not taken into account in the estimates?

Zimmermann conceded that this was the case, but reiterated that: "We don't know in advance when military supply trains will arrive. We have to let them through and halt our work. The same goes for oil trains intended for Estonia's fuel reserves — we don't know about those either. We're given about a month's notice, and so we adapt accordingly," he said.

Loco operator Elron has 10 new Škoda EMU trains, but these are standing idle while they await their licenses from the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA), which may arrive in September. According to Zimmermann, the trains could begin operating after that – though they have the capability of immediate use.

"Since they are dual-system, they can run on the current contact line voltage. If the new contact line up to Tapa is completed by September, the trains will definitely be able to run as far as Tapa," Zimmermann said.

ERR recently reported Estonian Railways' failure to provide timely notice of repair work and its disruption to bus services in various parts of Estonia, given many bus timetables sync with train schedules. Due to the repair work, train schedules have had to be revised virtually overnight but without the bus timetables catching up. Zimmermann said he hoped this would be a thing of the past.

"It happened to us once, and it hadn't happened before, and I hope it won't happen again. The issue was that the period from May 19 to June 30 ended up having the most work scheduled, from the Rail Baltica works at Ülemiste, to the Tartu and Tapa projects. For this reason, coordination took longer than we anticipated. Hence the schedule being released later than it should have been."

The next schedule will take effect on June 30 and was sent to Elron last week for coordination. The subsequent schedule will come into effect on September 1 and will be sent for coordination in about a month — at the beginning of July.

Zimmermann put the total cost at around €500 million, which includes not only the current work but also electrification work further on the lines to Narva and Valga, with the entire project running through 2028.

"A lot of work still lies ahead, but the biggest and most difficult sections were between Tapa and Tartu, where we're building eight kilometers of completely new track. Of the €500 million, the largest share is for building the contact line; part of it goes to railway construction, signal system upgrades, and raising all level crossings to a speed of 160 kilometers per hour," he said.

Elron announces its schedules on its site in English here.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!