RB Rail, the joint venture implementing the Rail Baltica project to build a new standard-gauge railway connecting the Baltic States, has signed a €928m additional cross-border grant agreement for Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding.

The total funding will exceed €1.1bn when combined with national co-financing from the three Baltic States, and will support necessary activities for further high-speed infrastructure development.

This latest tranche of funding combined with that secured from previous calls means that sufficient financing is now in place to support construction of 130km of the 870km Rail Baltica line.

The award, announced in June, was made under the second call within the second financial period of the CEF’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the period from 2021 to 2027.

The agreements were signed by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (Cinea) and RB Rail on behalf of the Ministry of the Climate of Estonia, the Ministry of Transport of Latvia and the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Lithuania.

“Awarding of an impressive CEF grant of almost €930m is giving a further push to the implementation of Rail Baltica,” says Cinea head of unit, Mr Morten Jensen. “The global project is now entering into its main construction phase in all three Baltic States, hence we trust the beneficiaries will also implement this important European project in due time.”

The funding will be added to the existing amount of over €1.6bn previously secured for the project from CEF and national budgets.

A detailed update on the Rail Baltica project appeared in the October issue of IRJ, and is available online here.