Train Travel Between The Baltics Is BAD! This Project Will Fix That 

Technically it's possible. The track exists, it's in use by freight trains, rolling stock capable to do this route also exists and is in use in all Baltic countries. The only thing that is lacking is a political agreement which just doesn't happen for some reason. This is an insanely absurd situation which just doesn't have any rational and reasonable explanation.

@@timectrl Yes, it could be done. Technically. When Vilnius-Daugavpils service existed. Anyway, the point is that direct tract Vilnius-Riga exists and it's in ok condition. And yet no trains run there which is utter bullshit. Same with Valga/Valka. Wtf is that? Why would a train not run at least between Riga and Tartu?

@@DS.J they are making a direct tartu-Riga train

@@timectrl Is there more info on that? Like a press release?

baltic states can travel more in the weekends to other countries now, for clubs and parties n festivals n shit , more easily ; ))) when RB is finished ofc

Im from Lithuania

Latvia (PV) simply has no trains to run - they don’t have enough to cover domestic demand, there are routes that should be having 3 trains a day that are running only on weekends. Also, cross border rail is ineligible for state subsidies. So there’s that for you

All that said Rail Baltica is still needed desperately even just from a European integration standpoint

@@riilhiiro Trains can be bought (which is what Latvia is doing right now, in fact). It's not like anyone has been preventing Latvia from buying rolling stock for the past ~30 years. Also, what exactly is preventing Latvia from co-subsidizing international routes just like it is done everywhere else?

@@DS.J latvia’s bureaucracy is awful: - for PV (national carrier) to buy trains it needs to go through SM (ministry of transport); - for it to go through SM, they have to approve it with FM (ministry of finance); - ministry of finance won’t approve it because any purchase will go on national debt What we’re trying to buy rn are battery electric trains, that will be used to cover gaps in capacity that’s lacking (and let some DR1As be retired). They will (if they will, that is) be bought mainly using EU green transport subsidies. we’d need atleast 30 diesel trainsets to cover the domestic demand alone, which we aren’t in the process of buying at all The cosubsidization issue - i’m hopeful on that, it depends on the government. I hope that our government is gonna cosubsidize trains to lithuania, both governments had talks about this recently and i’m hoping something good comes out of them

@@DS.J I'm pretty sure that in Latvia it's like here in Estonia: politicians decide if money gets allocated for purchasing new trains. Over here the national carrier needed new trains already in 2015 to satisfy the demand, so we're getting them in 2024. Our only hope would be push for greener policies by the EU because our politicians lack the foresight. We're a lot like USA: this is car country. If you want to get me started on how we don't plan for any public transport when building new residential areas...

French too - chemin de fer

In Spanish it's ferrocarril (fierro/hierro - iron, carril - track/rail).

Oh very interesting! I’m not hugely knowledgeable about trains so it is very cool and interesting to hear that a gauge-converting facility exists!

Isn’t the rail transportation in Lithuania lacking. As far as I know Estonia is the only country in the world that has managed to pull off total level boarding across it’s netwrok. It seems as same amount of track is electrified in both countries, around 150 km, (tho in the next year the Tallinn-Tartu track will be finished being electrified, adding 150 km of electrified track. (If you are intrested the cost is expected to be around 900 million euros.)) Then there is also the matter of upkeep. Both Estonian state-owned railway companies have invested a lot of keeping stuff high quality, with wooden tracks beams being removed 10 years ago and replaced with concrete. And with automated rail-laying trains (track building, and repair). As much as I have traveled in Lithuania and Estonia, it seems as Estonia has a better system, much better kept in order.

There will be no CPK after 15th of November :)

Doesn't Canada have transcontinental railway connecting major population centres from west to east?

Thanks for letting me know! I had to look it up… there’s not much info on the Balti Express/Ekpresas/Ekspress but there are a few photos. It’s cool history but also sad it’s no longer running.

@@LithuaniaExplained Even more: they installed the SUW-2000 boogie gauge change facility on the border. Trains with such boogies are not unlike Talgo. And they used such trains. There are such trains in ownership of both Polish and Ukrainian railway. Currently, AFAIK, rotting - pretty much like the brand-new (Swiss) Stadler-made trains in Baku. Eons ago one Ukrainian couch with SUW-2000 boogie de-railed, the investigation took an eternity. It turned out (surprise!) the reason was the "quality" track and maintenance. The SUW-2000 project was initiated by (than-east) German, Polish and (than) Soviet engineers in late 1980-s and the results were proven to be very good. AFAIK, today many freight cars crossing between Poland and Ukraine have these boogies. But the passenger service became the victim of bureaucracy and maybe even corruption.

In 2024 (after finishing the last short fragment with a bridge in Lomza) you will be able to travel from Warsaw to Lithuanian border on the road type S, which is in fact motorway standard. The railway line between Warszawa and Bialystok is now under intense upgrading. The most problematic is the last part of the railway connection: between Bialystok and Lithuanian border. It was not a priority, taking into consideration the amount of traffic, however, currently the line is expected to be ready in 2027 and its parameters will be higher than it had been initially planned. As you see in Poland the road investment is great. The railway project accelerated between Warszawa and Bialystok but the rest of it still only negotiated.

@greycliffnative road condition and creation is crazy good in Poland now. I'm so jealous

The increased technical requirements would make it a lot more costlier to build.

Today, the main cities of Poland are linked by railway transport reaching 160 km/h (99 mph). Too early. Poland first.

I think you’re right in this case. A fast, comfortable, and hopefully affordable way to travel to Riga and Tallinn- I think people from Lithuania and other Baltic countries will take the opportunity to explore their own region more.

@@LithuaniaExplained I hope it will work. I have done the Tallinn - Riga by train route myself and it is pretty fun besides the wait in Valga. I am simply skeptical it will happen. Otherwise, people will have to be resorting to buses such as ecolines or flixbus.

The National security is a very important part of this project. If balts exept help during confrontation with russia they have to make it possible for Poles to move soldiers and supplies rapidly

Vismaz nav krievija

@@radikusmanov7574 Estonia was also building narrow gauge railways at that time. Also that has nothing to do with my comment so idk why you said that

@@radikusmanov7574 you are clearly not reading my comments

True. If Vilnius wasn’t the capital and largest city then it probably would come here either- since it looks very indirect.

The objective of RB is to connect countries, hence the more direct route. Otherwise it would not be competitive with buses or short flights. The job of connecting population centres inside a country falls to the national railway company.

@@henrikmanitski1061 Sure You can check Lithuanian and Polish routes. Can You say that thous are more direct routes? 😅

There were literally independently verified studies done that actually analysed that it will be used a lot not only for passenger but also for trade. The economic benefits are literally stated in projects website.

What made them unprofitable? That's what people really are asking. Trains are more energy efficient than buses, right? Countries are different, and in some of them railroad infrastructure maintainers are less smart than in others, and that can _cause_ train lines to be unprofitable even when from first principles railroad has a competitive advantage. Do you get what I mean? Inefficient route planning (with pen and paper, in 2023), dumb subsidy allocation to favor buses, dumb infrastructure charges that distort the free market and send it in a downward spiral, etc etc. "Just that" turns out to be a long list of things that can be elucidated and fixed.

@@u1zha Are you addressing me? :) What bothers you about my comment? Transporting passengers by train has become unprofitable, I may not like it either, but that's how it happened. Freight trains are booming, nobody canceled them. Now, what about Rail Baltica - I don't question this project, everything is normal there. Also, this is a new railway line, not the old one. The old railway lines are now being reconstructed because they will be part of the Rail Baltic system, but the old lines are not suitable for the planned traffic of new passenger trains. Therefore, Rail Baltic will be a new railway line (at least in Lithuania), it is now published online as a 3D visualization. To this day, commentators confuse that new rail line with the old rail network. Rail Baltic will not be a renewal of the former passenger train service. Passenger transportation between the countries on the current railways is unprofitable. At least in Lithuania. Now what about your doubt whether I will be able to understand you? Well, I don't have a certificate from a psychiatrist :) . What else can I say? :) As for the fact that everything can be adjusted and corrected - yes, of course. Commentators speculated on the reasons for the cancellation of passenger train services between the countries, and this is a question about the past. That's what I commented on. I did not comment on the future and possibilities. Well, what did I say wrongly or misleadingly? :) I didn't study English, my vocabulary is poor, I don't hide it, but it can be a factor that makes the expression of my mind not quite clear. I have no intention of debating anything, I was just trying to answer the questions of some commenters while keeping the same scope of their questions.

Buses are uncomfortable, I imagine with fast trains Baltic people will travel much more. Also the project analyses was done and calculated all the benefits.

Some of this is a chicken and egg factor. People who don't want to spend 4+ hours on a bus or deal with air travel might travel between Riga and Vilnius for a weekend on a 2-hour journey on a comfortable modern train.

If it didn't make sense then we wouldn't have all those buses and passenger cars clogging roads on this route. Sorry but what you're saying just doesn't make sense. Cities well over 500K in size just 300km apart are absolutely ideal for train travel.

@@DS.J you do realise that maintaining bus routes and roads is not comparable to railways? What makes sense for one does not for another. Anyway I do remember reading somewhere that the cost-benefit analysis the europeans made had some major mistakes, even before the delays and the budget overruns were realised. However I'm not against it. But if I were to bet money, I would say that in 2 - 3 years after completion there will be only a token passenger service running, with maybe 1 train per day. But the freight does make sense, we are a transit country after all. (or will be again once europeans welcome the russians back)

@@gairionysten3188Are roads getting maintained for free? Road building and maintenance consume far, FAAAAR more money than any railway ever will.

@@DS.J "Road building and maintenance consume far, FAAAAR more money than any railway ever will." Sorry, but I just cannot take you seriously after you said this... Gave me a good laugh though. You can just do a quick google and figure out that railway construction costs in europe tend to be somewhere between 3x to 15x the cost of highway. Depends on wether you need to build tunnels, bridges etc. Finding maitenance costs is much harder, but I imagine it being similar multiplicates.

​​​​@@gairionysten3188 can I have what you're smoking? lmao

Hello! Thank you so much for letting me know! I think I fixed it. Feel free to send your inquiry again.

@@LithuaniaExplained Yep, seems it worked this time. Thanks!