Latvia to look for ways to significantly cut Rail Baltica costs
Following an in-depth review, Latvia's government has concluded that the current implementation model for the Rail Baltica railway is unsustainable, and solutions to reduce both technical requirements and costs must be found by mid-September.
Latvia's government is planning a major reassessment of how the Rail Baltica railway project is implemented, seeking ways to bring down its costs. At the same time, the main route of the first phase in Latvia will not be shortened for now.
The decision to revisit the project follows an in-depth evaluation, which concluded that the model used so far to carry out the project can no longer continue in its current form.
Deadline set for September
State authorities and the bodies responsible for the project have been tasked with finding solutions by mid-September that would allow both the technical requirements and the overall construction costs to be reduced. This means that in the coming weeks, concrete proposals will be sought for building the railway infrastructure more cheaply, without changing the route's location.
Rail Baltica is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the Baltic states, and its costs have been revised upward several times in recent years, raising questions about funding adequacy and the project's implementation timeline.
