Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation, Railways, Transport

"We reached agreement in the government that there is no reason to pay support from the state budget, because the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has sufficient own resources to make up for the loss resulting from the reduction of transit volumes," Sester told BNS.

The minister of economic affairs and infrastructure, Kristen Michal, earlier told BNS that Estonian Railways must be given money for the upkeep of infrastructure to offset the effect of the drastic reduction in rail transit traffic. "The reduction in freight flows is felt first and foremost in the realm of the railway, among the shippers of freight and in the fees they are paying," he said in mid-April.

"In the case of the railway we have the obligation arising from European law to ensure the preservation of the infrastructure, considering the big volume of passenger carriage, both in terms of speed and safety, and for the state this means that when freight flows are declining the railway has to be given money for it. Last year, for instance, the amount was five million euros," Michal said.

The ministry has asked for an additional appropriation of 15 million euros from the 2017 state budget of which five million is intended to compensate the domestic passenger train operator Elron for increased rail carriage charges and 10 million, to compensate Estonian Railways for the fall in transit.

The volume of rail transit traffic between Estonia and Russia has halved, from 12 to six train pairs a day. Ten years ago, in 2006, Estonian Railways received 32.4 trains from Russia per day on the average.