Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are investing billions in a new project connecting them to the EU. Rail Baltica is set to run from Tallinn to Warsaw. But laying the track comes with a number of political and engineering challenges, and rising costs.
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00:00Rudolf Janowski is on his way to meet the challenge of his life.
00:05He's working on the biggest infrastructure project in the history of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the rail Baltica.
00:13The tracks have to cross several rivers, including the Daugava in Riga.
00:17To build a bridge over Daugava, it's not happen every day. It's one time in the life opportunity.
00:24So this is the biggest river in Latvia.
00:27870 kilometers of track. They come with architectural, financial and political challenges.
00:34The line is set to run between Tallinn and Warsaw.
00:37The builders have to buy up land, cut down forests and plan the exact route.
00:42Sometimes there comes a new minister of transport who says,
00:46OK, I need to provide a new connection there and there.
00:49I need to provide, let's say, some kind of decisions together with, for example, road expansion projects.
00:56And OK, I can understand from government strategic perspective, but there is a limit how long you can do it.
01:03For the project engineers, every change in policy means the tracks have to be planned anew, usually with costs rising.
01:11Rail Baltica was expected to cost 6 billion euros. Most of it comes from EU coffers.
01:17Currently, 24 billion seem more accurate and work will take much longer than expected.
01:27Up until 2030, we will implement the parts of the project which are really necessary
01:33in order to get the train running from Poland up until Tallinn.
01:37And some aspects of the project we will phase out beyond 2030.
01:41The planners have learned to make do with what they have.
01:45Instead of two parallel tracks, just one track is enough for now.
01:49Critics agree the government, they say, has to focus on what's absolutely necessary.
01:55So we have to stop doing the nice-to-have things like, for example, building the Riga Central Railway Station as a huge station.
02:05We should actually focus on the number priority.
02:08Build the line that connects Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn to Berlin and Warsaw.
02:16As of yet, Baltic trains have been running on tracks left over from Soviet times.
02:21They have a wider track width.
02:23That means that trains from the Baltic states have to be switched onto cars with a European track system to get into Poland.
02:29For Lithuania, connecting the old system to the European track network is a Herculean effort.
02:35Vytautas Cilinskas is the engineer in charge of the route between Kaunas in Lithuania and the border to Latvia.
02:42He feels rushed ever since Russia's war in Ukraine makes Rail Baltica a more urgent project.
02:49Basically, that changed the supply chain because some materials that usually was brought from Russia, Belarus, for example, now we cannot buy it.
03:00So, for example, steel, the rebars, the cement, now we are buying from the Polish or from another company and that's increasing the project price.
03:14Adding to the pressure is NATO.
03:16They say that Rail Baltica could play a major role in moving military goods in future.
03:24A civilian project but with huge military implications because it will increase the abilities for NATO reinforcements to flow into Lithuania,
03:35but not only Lithuania but also the rest of the Baltic countries.
03:39Russia's war in Ukraine has awoken the West.
03:42For the Baltic states, independence from Moscow is more important than ever and Rail Baltica is benefiting from this new sense of urgency.