News

Last week, the quarterly Rail Baltica Task Force meeting was held in Vilnius, Lithuania. During it, the RB Rail AS interim CEO and CFO presented the progress of the project to the participants and we would like to share the presentation with you all as well! Here is the progress made in the Rail Baltica Global Project in the last quarter.

Anrī Leimanis, an independent Supervisory Board member, nominated by the Latvian shareholder, has been appointed to serve as the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of RB Rail AS, the joint venture of Rail Baltica. Ahti Kuningas and Karolis Sankovski have assumed the positions as Vice-Chairpersons.

In the framework of the Rail Baltica project, until September of 2020, the Upeslejas-Riga Central Station; Torņakalns-Imanta and Riga International Airport-Misa sections will carry out geotechnical investigations. The purpose is to obtain the necessary technical information on the composition of the soil and its physical properties for the design of the Rail Baltica main route and the development of sustainable technical solutions.

The joint venture of Rail Baltica, RB Rail AS, has carefully reviewed the findings of the joint audit, that was conducted by the state audit institutions of the Baltic States in 2019. “We fully trust and respect the findings of the joint audit, which were delivered by independent audit institutions from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,” says Agnis Driksna, interim CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of RB Rail AS. “We are committed to take action and have already started to implement necessary measures to achieve tangible change in the areas highlighted in the audit.”

Companies responsible for detailed technical design of Rail Baltica section from Kaunas to Lithuanian-Latvian state border, Spanish IDOM and Lithuanian UAB Kelprojektas, had completed site investigations for the first main line section. According Antanas Šnirpūnas, Head of RB Rail AS in Lithuania, key geodesic, geologic and geotechnical investigations had been completed in the 78 km long section Kaunas-Ramygala.

For the fourth consecutive year the Rail Baltica Global Forum will gather suppliers, professionals and experts in one of the largest events of the railway industry in the Baltic States. In 2020, the event will take place on 23 April in Riga, Latvia.

Rail Baltica has revealed the first visualisations of the future infrastructure elements, showing the design of pedestrian overpasses and tunnels, noise barriers, fences, animal passages, embankments and cuts as well as regional stations. In the new section of Rail Baltica Digital Information Center everyone is welcome to see what those infrastructure elements are, where each of them will be used and how the design and visual identity was achieved.

On 29 November, Rail Baltic Estonia signed an agreementwith Estonian structural engineering consultancy Pluss OÜ to oversee the design of Rail Baltica’s international passenger terminal in Pärnu.

Today, the cornerstone of the first construction structure on the Rail Baltica main line in Estonia, the Saustinõmme viaduct, was laid to mark the beginning of Rail Baltica’s high-speed rail link. Prime Minister of Estonia Jüri Ratas and Henrik Hololei, Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Transport, gave their welcoming remarks at today’s ceremony.

RB Rail AS Supervisory Board has appointed Agnis Driksna, the Director of Development and Communications Department at “European Railway Lines” in the capacity of the interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RB Rail AS, who will assume his duties starting from 2 December. Agnis Driksna is highly skilled project management and development expert and fully committed to strengthen cooperation between the project stakeholders and make sure that essential project activities are accelerated. He will replace Timo Riihimäki who will end his tenure on 1 December 2019. In parallel, Supervisory Board will start the recruitment of a permanent CEO.  

The Rail Baltica joint venture, RB Rail AS, has delivered a study evaluating the essential features and requirements for the integration of airport passenger traffic with the Rail Baltica high-speed railway infrastructure. The study outlines a service description, a high-level forecast of usage, and recommendations for the detailed design for railway stations, covering all 7 international Rail Baltica passenger stations – Tallinn, Pärnu, Riga, Riga Airport, Panevėžys, Kaunas and Vilnius, and 4 Baltic airports – Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Kaunas.

On 3 November, Implementing Body of Rail Baltica project in Latvia –Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas, Ltd. – has announced an international construction tender for the Rail Baltica station and related infrastructure in Riga International Airport. The first phase is devoted to the selection of qualified candidates. The entire scope of the tender includes the Rail Baltica station building in Riga International Airport, overpass, access roads, embankment, 6 km long section of railway tracks and overpass over K. Ulmaņa gatve.

On October 30, 2019, RB Rail AS Project Manager Artūrs Caune visited first year students of Transportation Systems Engineering at Riga Technical University. The purpose of this visit was to introduce young professionals to the future opportunities offered by Rail Baltica.

Today Timo Riihimäki, RB Rail AS Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board has announced his resignation due to personal reasons. He will carry out his duties until 19 December 2019. 

In order to deploy, implement and maintain Rail Baltica Common Data Environment for building information management system (BIM), RB Rail AS has entered into a contract with one of the leading global providers of software solutions Bentley Systems International Ltd. With this, Rail Baltica global project is going to deploy and set up a cloud-based Common Data Environment (CDE) to be used during the design, construction and operational phase of the railway line. The total amount of the five-year contract is 1.224 million EUR (excluding VAT), that includes software development, implementation and maintenance as well as license fees and training of users. The funding is allocated from the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) budget.