Just recently, at the beginning of 2022, the annual pan-Baltic survey on the resident’s attitudes* towards the Rail Baltica global project was conducted. The public opinion poll, which was conveyed already for the fourth consecutive year by the Rail Baltica project implementers, shows an increase of the general support for the Rail Baltica, but at the same time provides insights on numerous areas of the project where the Baltic countries residents might want to receive more information or be engaged.
The results showed that the general support level for the largest railway infrastructure project in the Baltics has slightly increased comparing to the previous years across all three Baltic States. The highest support for the project shows in Lithuania with more than 70% of the respondents sharing their positive attitude, followed by Latvia (66%) and Estonia (47%). The general awareness and information level have remained stable compared to the year before in all three countries.
Better connectivity with Europe and more convenient way of traveling
When asked about the top personal benefits of the project, amongst the most frequently mentioned were a more comfortable and safer traveling experience, increased options of convenient travel to neighbouring countries, and increased accessibility. In Latvia and Estonia, compared to a year before, the respondents increasingly associate possible personal benefits with building Rail Baltica. The results also showed that the most frequently mentioned associations with the project are related “fast travel mode”, “modern project” and “project of the future”.
Meanwhile, with the global project reaching next level maturity entering the construction phase in all three Baltic countries, habitats would like to receive more information on the actual project progress and ongoing works, practical information on the construction and related activities, as well as initiatives taken to mitigate the impact on the environment among other things.
“For this global megaproject to succeed, support of the society and critical stakeholders is of a great importance, and we are happy to see that the overall support for the Rail Baltica is growing. Since this project is maturing and entering its next phase, together with the project partners we will pay even more attention to transparent, result-driven, and efficient treatment of public funds across the whole project in the period of large-scale constructions reaching full maturity by 2024, which will also be reflected in the global project’s communication efforts,” says Agnis Driksna, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board at RB Rail AS.
*The annual quantitative online survey among the residents of the Baltic States was ordered by the Rail Baltica joint venture RB Rail AS and conveyed by a marketing research company “Berg Research”. The data collection was implemented via the SIA “SolidData” Internet User panel with the target audience aged 18-75, and with over 3000 respondents in total (1003 respondents in Latvia; 1006 respondents in Lithuania; 1004 respondents in Estonia).