News

Yesterday shareholders of Rail Baltica joint venture RB Rail AS approved a new Supervisory Board of the company. This appointment follows the decision of the Estonian shareholder to replace Riia Sillave, CEO of RB Estonia with Ahti Kuningas, Deputy Secretary General for Transport at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication of Estonia. According to the Commercial Law of Latvia, Supervisory Board must be reelected if a new member is appointed.

The Rail Baltica Joint Venture RB Rail AS has announced a tender for the provision of Notified Body (NoBo) services to assess and verify conformity of the Rail Baltica infrastructure with European Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI).

A study has assessed the impact of climate change on Rail Baltica operations and maintenance during the lifecycle of the line. Based on the analysis of past 30-year climate and weather data and national level climate projections, the study concluded that Baltic region would gradually experience milder winters with less snow, but more wet snow, freezing rain, glazed frost and ice formation events. In summertime, more frequent heatwaves are likely, leading to maximum temperatures around or even over 40o C.

Yesterday the quarterly Rail Baltica Task Force meeting was held in Tallinn, Estonia. During it, the Rail Baltica Joint Venture 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.

In the past six months Rail Baltica Global Project has firmly entered the design phase of the main line and related infrastructure objects. In response to this new chapter in the cycle of the project, the Joint Venture of the Baltic States is going to adjust its structure by introducing a new management board position – Chief Program Management Officer (CPMO). With an initial team of ten experts, CPMO will oversee the implementation of the Rail Baltica Master Plan in all three Baltic States.

The Rail Baltica project implementers and representatives of several non-governmental organizations in Latvia agreed on regular information exchange, mutual consultation and involvement in the implementation of the Rail Baltica project by signing a joint memorandum of cooperation.

RB Rail had published the tender for the Study on “Rail Baltica CCS-Subsystems procurement and deployment strategy”, which shall be carried out in Q4/2019 – Q1/2020. The objective of this Study is elaboration of the procurement and deployment strategy for the introduction of the state-of-the-art CCS-solution for the whole Rail Baltica line.

Site investigations for the main Rail Baltica line in Lithuania are currently underway in the Jonava region. Kelprojektas – a local company under the supervision of Spanish IDOM – is currently surveying the area from the towns of Švecarija to Šėta. Special attention is paid to the site where the almost 2km long railway bridge over river Neris will be built – it will be the longest in the Baltics.

Joint Venture of Rail Baltica RB Rail AS had the honour to meet with the delegation of the Logistics Alliance Germany led by Steffen Bilger (MP), Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure and Federal Government Coordinator for Freight Transport and Logistics, to discuss possible modes of cooperation between both sides in terms of logistics, focusing on freight transport.

The Rail Baltica Joint Venture RB Rail AS has announced a tender for the design and design supervision services of the Rail Baltica main line North and South sections in Latvia. 

5 July 2019, Riga – the Joint Venture of Rail Baltica signed two design contracts to commence design works on a 123 kilometres long central section from Upeslejas through Riga to Misa and from Vangaži through Salaspils to Misa. The design works are carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Transport of Latvia.

On 27 June 2019, the RB Rail AS team had the honour to meet Ms. Amélie de Montchalin, the French Minister of State for European Affairs, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs to present the development of the Rail Baltica project, focusing on the European nature of this initiative. In addition, we reflected on excellent cooperation with French institutions, railway industry associations and French companies involved in the project delivery.

Preparations for the detail technical design of Rail Baltica continue, as site investigations are carried out in Kohila, Rapla, Kehtna and Northern Pärnumaa parishes. The fieldworks with necessary measurements and analyses began in May and are carried out by experts from three companies – OÜ Reaalprojekt, Reib OÜ and Rei Geotehnika OÜ.

As Rail Baltica main line design and design supervision procurement procedures enter the final stage, we are reflecting on the tendering results and re-evaluating our approach and requirements to identify any potential improvement areas. From summer 2019 onwards, Rail Baltica main line design services will be ongoing already in 6 sections out of 11, covering nearly half of the total track length.

On 14 June 2019 the Joint Venture of Rail Baltica signed new design contracts to commence the design of two sections of the Rail Baltica main line – one in Estonia and one in Lithuania. Both contacts will be implemented by a Spanish company IDOM Consulting, Engineering, Architecture S.A.U. The new contracts will cover the next 139 km of Rail Baltica main line. As a result, currently the design works are ongoing in 288 km of the new high-speed railway track.