News

On 11th October 2018, seminar “Rail Baltica as Innovation Platform” took place in Tallinn as part of the event series organized by Rail Baltica Business Network. The main objective of the seminar was to bring together specialists and stakeholders from different sectors to discuss future opportunities for Rail Baltica. Opening words were delivered by Kadri Simson, Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure, who emphasized that Rail Baltica is an opportunity for innovation not only through developing technical and digital solutions but also by expanding business models and providing new intermodal ways of travelling.

On October 10, 2018, Ignas Degutis, RB Rail AS acting CEO hosted a meeting with ambassadors and diplomats from the countries representing the European Economic Area, with an aim to share updates about developments in the Rail Baltica Global Project.

Yesterday, October 9, Rail Baltica Joint Venture hosted a meeting with representatives of the national audit institutions on the Baltic states to commence a functional audit on the management of the internal systems, procurement processes and financing of the Rail Baltica project. The audit will be conducted jointly by the National Audit Office of Estonia, State Audit Office of Latvia and National Audit Office of Lithuania.

On September 27 Ignas Degutis was appointed as an acting CEO and Chair of the Management Board of the Rail Baltica joint venture. Degutis has been with the company for over a year, serving as a Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Management Board under the CEO Baiba Rubesa, who submitted her resignation on September 27. Degutis will continue also with his duties as Chief Financial Officer. The rest of the Management Board remains in the previous composition, consisting of Mart Nielsen, Chief Technical Officer and Kaspars Rokens, Chief Operations Officer.  

Joint Venture has grown from a start-up sized organisation to a professional team of over 50 members of staff, who is steering the Rail Baltica project through the planning and now the design phase”, says Catherine Trautmann, North-Sea Baltic TEN-T Corridor Coordinator. Full statement regarding the change of leadership at RB Rail available here.

On 27 September 2018, RB Rail AS Supervisory Board appointed Ignas Degutis, Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Management Board in the capacity of RB Rail AS Acting CEO.

RB Rail AS has announced two open competitions – “Quality Assessment Study on Usage of Local Mineral Materials for Rail Baltica Railway Project” and “Technical Study and Design Proposals for Rail Baltica Infrastructure Maintenance Facilities”.

On 12 September, a Rail Baltica Business Network event took place in Kaunas, with the participation of Catherine Trautmann, European Coordinator for the North Sea-Baltic core network corridor, Kaspars Briškens, Business Development Manager of RB Rail AS and Mindaugas Kvašys, Project Manager at Civitta as well as participants representing the local business community.

On 12 September, Kaspars Rokens, COO and Member of the Management Board of RB Rail AS, participated at the second Latvian Start-up Forum in Riga organized as part of Start-up day 2018. During the event, Rokens told more about the Rail Baltica Global Project and what are the opportunities for the start-ups and innovators to engage with the project, as well as discussed the role of start-up companies in the country’s development and innovation processes.  

On 5 September 2018, Ignas Degutis, CFO and the Member of the Management Board of RB Rail AS, took part in the Economic Forum in Krynica and a panel discussion devoted to the future of transport. Degutis pointed out that the development of the transport industry globally is shifting towards favoring the railway since it is significantly safer, greener, and cost efficient compared to other forms of transportation.

On August 23, 2018, Baiba Rubesa, the Chairperson and CEO of RB Rail AS, addressed the meeting of the Latvian Ports, Transit and Logistics Council, chaired by Māris Kučinskis, the Prime Minister of Latvia.

The shareholders of RB Rail AS – Rail Baltic Estonia OU, Eiropas dzelzceļa līnijas SIA and Rail Baltica statyba UAB – have approved a new Supervisory Board with the following members: Riia Sillave, CEO of Rail Baltic Estonia OU, Edvīns Bērziņš, Chairman of the Board of Latvijas dzelzceļš VAS, Anti Moppel, Member of Supervisory Board of Rail Baltic Estonia OU, Karolis Sankovski, CEO of Rail Baltica Statyba UAB, Vineta Rudzīte, Deputy Legal Director on administrative issues and Head of Secretariat of Presidents’ Council of Latvijas dzelzceļš VAS, and Romas Švedas, Chairman of the Implementation Committee of UN Espoo Convention.

On 24 of July, the joint venture of the three Baltic States RB Rail AS signed the contract with Civitta Estonia AS and Railistics GmbH to conduct the feasibility study of Pärnu freight terminal in the context of the Rail Baltica Global Project. The contract value is 139 876.00 EUR, excluding VAT.

On July 13, 2018, the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), joint venture of three Baltic states RB Rail AS, the Ministry of Economics and Communication of Estonia, the Ministry of Transport of Latvia and the Ministry of Transport and Communication of Lithuania signed the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Grant Agreement for the construction of the Rail Baltica conventional railway infrastructure. The total value of the Agreement is nearly 130 million euros while the CEF contribution will be of a maximum amount of 110 million euros which is 85% of total eligible costs.

The joint venture of the three Baltic States RB Rail AS has announced an open competition “Architectural, landscaping and visual identity Design guidelines for Rail Baltica”. This tender will provide united design guidelines for the whole railway track of Rail Baltica. To ensure that universal design addresses the needs of the society, stakeholder parties of each country such as architect’s associations, universities, social partners as NGO’s for the disabled, retired, and family support, are to be engaged in the preparation of the guidelines. The submission deadline for the proposal has been extended to the July 30, 2018.