In December of last year, the government instructed the Ministry of Transport to present a report to the government by March of this year on the construction schedule of the high-speed railway "Rail Baltica", however, more than six months later, this has not yet happened, public media reports.
The website "RB Rail" states that "Rail Baltica" is in the full-scale construction phase in all three Baltic countries. However, the program "Kas notiek Latvijā?" concludes that behind this and other optimistic statements in Latvia lies a different reality. The design process is increasingly being delayed, the Minister of Transport's plan for its adjustment and transfer of management to "Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijās" has not been implemented since spring, and builders still have unresolved issues regarding the projects, making the prospects for completing construction by 2030 increasingly unrealistic.
Almost two years ago, in December 2023, the government of Evika Silina signed a contract with builders for the main line stretching approximately 235 kilometers - the general partnership "E.R.B. Rail JV PS". A year and a half later, the Ministry of Transport grandly announced that "the green light has been given for large-scale construction works" on the southern section towards the border with Lithuania. However, this statement does not answer the question of why this permission was not granted immediately after hiring the builder, and whether there are any grounds for the statement about "large-scale works."
Two years ago, it was known that the design of "Rail Baltica" was delayed not by months, but by years. The program "Kas notiek Latvijā?" reports that at the end of summer, during the discussion of the project information report, options for previously planned reductions were discussed among the interested agencies in all sections - from land acquisition and project review to construction works. During the discussion, it was concluded that the project sets unrealistic deadlines - this is done solely to continue claiming that the project will be completed by the end of 2030, and even if such deadlines are still possible, it will mean additional costs.
