The projected costs of Rail Baltica have been mounting, and so has the funding gap. In order to secure the necessary money for the critical Baltic rail infrastructure, Latvia is now considering taking a 1 billion euro loan. In total, the country needs 6,4 billion euros for the railway line.
The country seems to be nowhere close to finding such a large amount of money. Three to four billion euros are still missing, according to Latvia’s transport minister. Originally, the EU was supposed to finance 85 per cent of the total costs of the project, but with the skyrocketing projected costs, that seems unlikely to happen. In order to get closer to the numbers that it needs, Latvia is now considering taking out a billion euro loan for Rail Baltica.
Up until now, from both the EU and national co-financing has slightly exceeded 1,4 billion euros. The transport ministry has offered to reallocate some 340 million euros from other EU funds. However, it is already clear that that is not yet enough.
Single track Rail Baltica
Earlier, Latvia floated the idea of making its section of Rail Baltica single-track only, reducing costs considerably. It may also build fewer noise walls, road connections and abandon the idea to connect Riga Airport with Misa. Those measures may reduce Rail Baltica costs from 6,4 to 5 billion euros in Latvia, the last remaining Baltic country where Rail Baltica mainline construction has not yet fully started.