News

On 31 January, 2017, Baiba Rubesa, CEO and Chairperson of the Management Board of the joint venture “RB Rail AS”, met for the first time with Rokas Masiulis, Lithuanian Minister of Transport and Communications, and Mantas Bartuška, Director General of “Lietuvos geležinkeliai” (JSC “Lithuanian Railways”) to discuss Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica project development and topical issues.

For successful implementation of the European gauge railway line Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica project its coordinator, the joint venture of the three Baltic States “RB Rail AS” registered in Latvia, has founded branches in Lithuania and Estonia.

On Friday, January 20, a new Chairman of the Board of the railway line Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica project coordinator, the joint venture of the three Baltic States “RB Rail AS”, was approved. The new chairman is Latvian representative Edvīns Bērziņš, the Chairman of the Board of “Latvijas Dzelzceļš” VAS, who is replacing the previous Chairman of the Board, Lithuanian representative and the Director of “Rail Baltica statyba” Dainius Budrys.

The Joint Stock Company RB Rail AS announces an open competition “Design Guidelines for Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica Railway” for which proposals to be submitted by 3rd March, 2017. Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica is the largest infrastructure project in the Baltic States to date and it envisages construction of a new, EU gauge double-track electrified railway line (Tallinn – Riga – Kaunas – Warsaw) to eliminate the technical bottleneck due to the gauge differences (1520 vs.EU 1435 mm). This project is part of the TEN-T North Sea-Baltic corridor. The procurement and subject matter is co-financed by Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).

On November 30, 2016 an international conference organized by the Ministry of Transport of Republic of Latvia named “Progress of project Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica 2016” was held in Riga, where the representatives of the ministries and implementing bodies informed about their achieved progress in each of the Baltic states. Among the spokesperson in the conference were representatives from the three Baltic states including the CEO and Chairperson of the Board of the joint venture RB Rail AS –Baiba Rubesa.

On November 18, 2016, the Grant Agreement under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) of total value 225 million euros for construction of the Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica high-speed railway was signed by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), joint venture of the three Baltic states RB Rail AS and the Ministry of Economics and Communication of Estonia, the Ministry of Transport of Latvia and the Ministry of Transport and Communication of Lithuania. The CEF contribution will be of a maximum amount of 191 million euros which is 85% of total eligible costs. The agreement is meant to supplement the EU co-financing agreement (No INEA/CEF/TRAN/M2014/1045990) signed already on November 23, 2015.

Today, October 21, the shareholders of RB Rail AS – “Rail Baltic Estonia”, “Eiropas dzelzceļa līnijas” and “Rail Baltica statyba” – have approved the new Supervisory Board with the following members: Anti Moppel, the Member of Supervisory Board of “Rail Baltic Estonia”, Indrek Orav, CEO of “Rail Baltic Estonia”, Edvīns Bērziņš, Chairman of the Board of “Latvijas Dzelzceļš”, Vineta Rudzīte, Deputy Legal Director on administrative issues and Head of Secretariat of Presidents’ Council of “Latvijas Dzelzceļš”, Dainius Budrys, Director of “Rail Baltica statyba”, and Danielius Dolgich, Board Member of “Rail Baltica statyba” and Chief Legal Officer at Rail Baltica project directorate at “Lietuvas geležinkeliai”.

Lietuvos Geležinkeliai has signed the Agreement on the Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica Contracting Scheme. Thus all nine signatory parties – RB Rail AS, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Latvia, Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania, Rail Baltic Estonia OU, Estonian Technical Regulatory Authority, Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas SIA, Rail Baltica Statyba UAB, Lietuvos Geležinkeliai AB – have signed the document, thus concluding the formal process of the agreement approval.

The EU’s Directorate General on Transport and Mobility (DG MOVE) has informed RB Rail that the Commission believes at this stage that a major delay has occurred in implementing the global Rail Baltic/ Rail Baltica project especially as far as the signing of the Contracting Scheme agreement is concerned.

Today Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica press conference will be held at the Ministry of Transport of Republic of Latvia at 10:30 AM (local time), which will be attended by three Baltic states’ representatives. The conference will present more detailed information about the Agreement on the Contracting Scheme for the Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica, which defines procurement roles […]

The signing process of the Agreement on Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica Contracting Scheme is almost concluded with one signature still pending. Due to the internal decision making procedures in Lietuvos Geležinkeliai, the signing of the Agreement by this signatory party will be completed in the upcoming days. As we informed already last week, all three countries […]

On September 7, the Supervisory Board of RB Rail approved the basic principles of the Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica procurement model which is core to the Contracting Scheme. In order to legally certify that all involved parties agree to this model, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia, Ministry of Transport of Latvia, Ministry of Transport of Lithuania, Estonian Technical Regulatory Authority, RB Rail, Rail Baltic OU, Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas, Rail Baltica Statybas UAB un Lietuvas Geležinkeliai have to sign the Agreement on the Contracting Scheme for the Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica until September 30, 2016. During September the parties still have to agree on some legal issues to be stipulated in the agreement.

Today, September 7, the Supervisory Board of the joint venture of three Baltic countries approved the basic principles of the Rail Baltic/Rail Baltica procurement model which is core to the Contacting Scheme to be agreed by all three countries. All procurements will be divided in three groups – procurements organised solely by the joint venture, consolidated procurements carried out by the joint venture and procurements carried out by the national implementers under strict joint venture supervision.