Rail Baltica completion by 2030 impossible, says Latvian PM Kulbergs

Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs (AS) said in an interview on TV3's “900 seconds” that completing the Rail Baltica railway project in all three Baltic states by 2030 is not mathematically possible.

Kulbergs noted that during a European Council meeting in Brussels, he met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the further progress of Rail Baltica. They agreed that EU Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas will visit the Baltics to discuss how Baltic leaders can present the project's future vision. The prime minister emphasized his readiness to assume a leading role among the Baltic states and called for closer political coordination between Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

Regarding Estonia's stance, Kulbergs said that Estonians are “living in a bit of a dream world.” He argued that in Estonia, politicians with incomplete information, rather than technical experts, are dictating the project timelines. The prime minister criticized the current focus on a public competition over deadlines, calling it a “stupid competition” that leads to cost overruns and stressed that no country has the capacity to complete the project by 2030.

Kulbergs urged the Baltic states to find ways to revise the project and reduce its costs. He suggested lowering the planned train speed as one potential measure to achieve savings. The prime minister admitted that he has been “thinking outside the box” for additional solutions, including those not originally included in the project model.