News

The annual meeting between the Rail Baltica Joint Venture and the Lithuanian Railways took place on 20 November in Vilnius. The RB Rail team, headed by Ignas Degutis, acting CEO and Chairperson of the Management Board talked presented current priorities, such as detailed technical design of the railway line, efforts to achieve sustainable Rail Baltica financing, cooperation with Finland and Poland as well as progress with the key strategic studies – operational plan and infrastructure management plan.

The joint venture of the three Baltic states RB Rail AS has commenced the development of the Architectural, landscaping and visual identity guidelines for the railway infrastructure elements of Rail Baltica. These guidelines will provide harmonised solutions for the design of stations, railway bridges, signage, noise barriers, animal passages and other structures to be applied in further development of Rail Baltica as a truly cross-border project uniting the three Baltic states. Those solutions will be economically and technically feasible, standardized and innovative to be used during the design and ultimately – construction of the Rail Baltica line and infrastructure objects. In addition, the guidelines will set out the accessibility requirements for people with limited mobility as well as public safety requirements.

On November 7, Rail Baltica Global Project team consisting of technical experts from RB Rail AS, SIA Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas and AB Lietuvos geležinkeliai met with representatives from Crossrail and High Speed 2 (HS2) to learn more about their experiences of implementing BIM systems in their projects.

The joint venture of the three Baltic states RB Rail AS is progressing with a study, which assesses the climate change impact on the design, construction, maintenance and operations of the Rail Baltica railway. On November 14 the RB Rail AS hosted a meeting with the institutions involved in the project and research company to discuss the initial findings, to identify the critical environment elements at different railway sections and to review the first risk mitigation strategies. The main objective of the final study is to be prepared for upcoming climate changes during the whole lifecycle of the project.

Rail Baltica Joint Venture is starting the second stage of the procurement of the design and design supervision services for the Rail Baltica section Upeslejas–Riga–Misa in Latvia.

Statement by Catherin Trautmann, North-Sea Baltic TEN-T Corridor Coordinator, following Rail Baltica decision.

On 24 October in Strasbourg Catherine Trautmann, EU Coordinator of the North-Sea Baltic TEN-T Corridor together with Rail Baltica representatives Ignas Degutis, acting CEO of the Rail Baltica Joint Venture, Ahti Kuningas, Deputy State Secretary of the Transport at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication of Estonian, Dins Merirands, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport of Latvia and Ričardas Degutis, Vice-Minister of Transport and Communications of Lithuania, Mr Andrzej Bittel, Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Infrastructure and Construction of Poland, Mr Tomasz Lachowicz, Director, Representative Office of PKP S.A. in Belgium, Mr Jakub Kapturzak, Ministry of Infrastructure and Construction of Poland addressed the “Friends of Rail Baltica” group established by members of the European Parliament.

On 18 October, the Joint Venture of Rail Baltica hosted a meeting with the companies which were qualified to participate in the tender for design and design supervision services on the sections of the railway in Estonia from Pärnu to Rapla (section length: 71 km) and in Lithuania from Kaunas to Ramygala (section length: 78 km). In total six international companies per country have qualified in this competition, and they are expected to submit the proposals by 27 November.

On 15 October the Rail Baltica Task Force met in Vilnius on technical level with experts from the three Baltic states, Finland, Poland and representatives from the European Commission, INEA and the Rail Baltica Joint Venture to align on further progress of the Global Project.

On October 18, a business meeting, dedicated to the infrastructure investment opportunities between China and Latvia, was held in Riga. It gathered representatives from the transport industry in Latvia as well as companies from China. The meeting, organized by KPMG, provide an insight into both markets and a platform to discuss potential cooperation opportunities.

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.