LITHUANIA’s infrastructure manager LTG Infra has outlined planned capital investment of €210m in both the Rail Baltica project and its 1744km 1520mm-gauge conventional network in 2021.
The largest share, €71m, will support work on the 392km Lithuanian section of the €5.8bn Rail Baltica project is currently underway. The section will comprise the southern part of the project and includes a new railway node in Kaunas currently being designed by Ardanuy Ingenieria under a €1.1m contract awarded in September 2020.
Upgrades to the Vilnius - Klaipeda line, Lithuania’s core east-west 1520mm-gauge rail corridor, will receive the second largest share of funds in 2021, totalling €65m. This includes €32m to support electrification of the line, as well as €33m for repair and renewal works, including track renewal. Electrification of the entire corridor between the Belarusian border and Klaipeda is scheduled for completion in 2022.
€30m has been allocated to track doubling efforts across other parts of the national network other than the Vilnius - Klaipeda line, as well as €11m for track repairs on main lines and secondary tracks in stations and depots.
€12m will be invested in noise reduction measures across the network. €5m has been allocated for the renovation of communications equipment, another €5m for turnout maintenance, and €2m for level crossings.
€2.8m will be used to improve station information systems, and €200,000 to improve the energy efficiency and lighting reliability.
The investments are part of a wider programme which aims to invest €907m in the renewal and improvement of existing rail infrastructure by 2030. LTG Infra invested €179m infrastructure repair and modernisation projects in 2020, significantly more than the €87m invested in 2019.
Key projects include the launch of electrification between Vilnius and Klaipeda, as well as the completion of work to connect the Kaunas intermodal freight terminal to the wider 1435mm-gauge European network.
2020 financial report
LTG Infra reported revenue of €217.2m for 2020, a year-on-year fall of 8% after network activity dropped 2% to 32.6 billion tonne-km. LTG Infra also completed 293 public procurements worth €147m in 2020.
“Familiarisation of interested market participants with the planned tenders and ongoing projects will maximise competition and efficient use of investments,” says Mr Karolis Sankovskis, CEO of LTG Infra. “The pandemic has forced all companies to rethink their activities, but our key projects have not stopped. Our planned work continues, which in the face of Covid-19 is a very significant stimulus for the country's economy.”
LTG Infra’s performance for last year is roughly in line with the wider LTG Group, which reported revenue of €468.8m, a year-on-year fall of 7% compared with €505.5m in 2019, primarily due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The LTG Group also completed its ‘strategic unbundling programme’ in July, which separated its operations into separate subsidiaries, including passenger operator LTG Link, freight operator LTG Cargo, LTG Infra and holding company LTG.
