The government's delays and unmade decisions have significantly affected the progress of the Rail Baltica project — the head of RB Rail continues to express dissatisfaction with the process. Why Latvia still lacks billions of euros to complete the project and what the project implementers expect from the new government is detailed by News 360TV.
The new government is set to make one of the most important decisions in the history of the Rail Baltica project. The head of the company RB Rail calls for a decision to complete the railway line by 2035, emphasizing that the government has been repeatedly presented with various solutions to attract the missing funding.
Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs points out that he has heard this signal and promises that the government will soon assess possible solutions: “I have an idea, as I have deeply studied Rail Baltica. I need to test this idea. Is it viable, because it is extravagant, but it could solve the problem and be understandable to the public.”
The contract signed by Latvia for the main route of the Rail Baltica railway project is very expensive, says the head of RB Rail. The cost of one kilometer in Latvia is 16 million euros, which is 2.3 times more than in Estonia and about 66% more expensive than in Lithuania. We pay more for gravel, soil, and other basic materials. There is criticism on social media that these contracts were signed when Kaspars Briškens was the Minister of Transport.
“These decisions were urgent because otherwise Latvia risked losing funding allocated by the European Union — up to 700 million euros. My activities in the Rail Baltica project as Minister were aimed at maximizing transparency, unlike my predecessors — both the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Finance, and the Prime Minister — when there were obvious signs that information was being concealed,” says former Minister of Transport, Saeima member Kaspars Briškens.
