RIGA, May 24 (Xinhua) -- European coordinator for the North Sea-Baltic TEN-T Corridor Catherine Trautmann said in Riga that she hoped the mainline of the pan-Baltic railroad project Rail Baltica could be completed by 2023.
Catherine Trautmann made the remarks in an interview with Latvian news agency LETA issued on Friday. She was visiting Riga this week and said the railway is important for the connection with Poland.
Rail Baltica, part of the European Union's (EU) North Sea Baltic TEN-T corridor, is a double-track, European standard 1,435 mm gauge electrified railway for passenger and freight transport. It will be built from Tallinn to the Lithuanian-Polish border with an overall length of 870 km. The railway was expected to be completed by 2026 when the project tender was launched.
The project has been delayed for several reasons. Eiropas Dzelzcela Linijas (EDzL), the company in charge of the railroad construction in Latvia, said earlier this week that deforestation works are currently underway along the planned railway, and construction works are expected to begin towards the second half of the summer.
Commenting on the delayed development, Trautmann said the main problem is "to find new money" and "delays are costly." "Some parts of the project may not be fully completed, but I hope we will have a basic line with trains running in 2030," she added.
According to the official website of the Rail Baltica project, the project is financed by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the EU. In the framework of the Connecting Europe Facility funding instrument, EU funding accounts for 85 percent of the total eligible costs. ■
