DIRECT passenger trains were restored between the Lithuanian capital Vilnius and Latvia’s second-largest city Daugavpils on January 13, when Lithuanian Railways (LG) launched a new twice-daily weekend service aimed at the leisure and tourist markets.
THE first tenders for detailed technical design work on railway infrastructure for the Rail Baltica standard-gauge link between Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were issued by the RB Rail trilateral joint venture at the end of December.
THE Lithuanian parliament voted on October 10 in favour the Rail Baltica project to build an 870km standard-gauge 240km/h mixed-traffic railway linking the Baltic state capitals with Poland and the broader European railway network, thereby completing the ratification of the project.
THE European Commission (EC) has fined Lithuanian Railways (LG) €27.87m for breaching EU competition law by removing a section of track on a cross-border link with Latvia to force a customer to continue using a more circuitous route.
BELARUSIAN Railways (BC) electric locomotives have begun operating into Lithuania following the completion of electrification on the Maladzečna - Kena line, the final section of the Minsk - Vilnius route to be energised.
THE European Commission (EC) decided on July 25 to allocate €110.5m to the Rail Baltica project, and also confirmed that funding agreements would be signed by the end of November.
RB Rail, the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian joint venture responsible for implementing the Rail Baltica standard-gauge high-speed project, has awarded a €563,065 contract to Systra to develop design guidelines for the project.
THE Lithuanian Ministry of Transportation and Communications and RB Rail have has awarded a contract to Spanish group Ardanuy Ingenieria to conduct a feasibility study for the upgrading of the Polish/Lithuanian border - Kaunas - RRT Palemonas line, which will form part of the planned Rail Baltica high-speed project.
RB Rail, the company set up to oversee the Rail Baltica high-speed rail project to link the three Baltic states to Poland, has appointed its management team and published the results of a cost-benefit analysis.
THE prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania met in Tallinn on January 31 to sign an agreement on the implementation of the Rail Baltica standard-gauge link between the three countries.
