Financial Services, Good for Business, Railways, Transport

The government decided at its Cabinet sitting on Friday to increase the share capital of Estonian Railways by 10 mln euros.

The company's CEO Erik Laidvee said that while the formal decision of the government had yet to reach the company, they welcome the decision made by the government. 

Estonian Railways has launched a project in the cross-infrastructure modernization of control, command and signalling systems (CCS), whose first stage would see new CCS systems installed in the Tapa-Narva, Tapa-Tartu and Tartu-Valga sections of the track and train protection systems and interfaces updated in the Tartu-Koidula section, the company said on Friday. 

It said that in the company's infrastructure mainly outdated and labor intensive traffic control technologies are used which significantly undermine the possibility to ensure the continuous functioning of the railway.  

If the company were to go on using existing technologies, extensive and long-lasting stoppages or disruptions in traffic due to their low dependability and lack of spare parts are likely, which runs counter to the state's strategic objective to increase speeds and the number of departures in rail passenger traffic. 

"The increase in the share capital of Estonian Railways by 10 mln euros helps to ensure the own contribution necessary under the loan agreement for the performance of the first stage of the project in the modernization of the railway's safety systems and enables us to move forward with the project according to schedule," Laidvee said.

The large-scale procurement concerning the CCS project and associated procurements have been prepared, and the procurement will be announced in June this year with a view to concluding the procurement contracts in September.

In addition to increasing the share capital of Estonian Railways, the government decided on Friday to also increase the share capital of Nordica by 30 mln euros and of regional ports operator Saarte Liinid by three million euros.