Rail Baltica
Railway network across the Baltic nations / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rail Baltica is a rail infrastructure project that is intended to link the Baltic states to the European rail network.[3] The plan is to improve rail connections between Central and Northern Europe southeast of the Baltic Sea. The plan is for a continuous rail link from Tallinn (Estonia) to Warsaw (Poland), going through Riga (Latvia), Kaunas, and Vilnius (Lithuania). Its total length in the Baltic States is 870 kilometres (540 mi), with 213 kilometres (132 mi) in Estonia, 265 kilometres (165 mi) in Latvia, and 392 kilometres (244 mi) in Lithuania.[4] Rail Baltica is one of the priority projects of the European Union.
Rail Baltica | |
---|---|
Overview | |
Locale | Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland |
Website | www |
Service | |
Type | Public high-speed railway |
System | Rail Baltica (European gauge railway) |
Services | Tallinn–Pärnu–Riga–Riga International Airport–Panevėžys–Kaunas/Vilnius–Lithuania/Polish Border |
History | |
Planned opening |
|
Technical | |
Number of tracks | Double track |
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge (primary) |
Electrification | Template:25 kV 50 Hz AC overhead line[1] |
Operating speed |
|
Signalling | ERTMS L2 |
Rail Baltica will be the first large-scale mainline standard gauge railway in the area. The rail networks in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are mainly in Russian gauge (1,520 mm). These countries' first railways were built in the second half of the 19th century while they were part of the Russian Empire.
The benefits to Baltic society and business may be €16.2 billion, according to a study produced by Ernst & Young.[5] At the end of April 2021, governments of Estonia and Finland promised to cooperate in the area of transport.