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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Wednesday, 24.04.2024, 22:46

CEO of Lithuanian Railways criticizes Rail Baltica joint venture

BC, Vilnius, 05.05.2016.Print version
According to Stasys Dailydka, CEO of the Lithuanian state-owned railway company Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways), RB Rail, a joint venture set up by the Baltic countries to implement the European-gauge railway Rail Baltica project, has become a stumbling block to what is the three countries' largest joint project, informs LETA/BNS.

According to Dailydka, the European coordinator for Rail Baltica Catherine Trautmann should help the countries reach an agreement, rather than criticizing their actions.

 

Trautmann said recently to the Latvian news portal 15min.lt that the Baltic countries could lose the Rail Baltica support.

 

"It's hard for me to say why it was said this way. Perhaps something was taken out of context, because there are no reasons for this. And if she was misled by somebody, then it's difficult for me to explain, because in principle, she should help us –- the Poles, Latvians, Estonians and Lithuanians –- to carry out the project faster and to solve a great deal of various problems. We are all good at criticizing," Dailydka told BNS.

 

In Dailydka's words, RB Rail CEO Baiba Rubesa is not working for the benefit of the three states either. "She seems to be working for herself, not for the three states. It's hard to say who she is representing. That joint venture has become a kind of stumbling block instead of accelerating coordination actions," he told BNS.

 

The CEO thinks that in this situation, the problem should be dealt with by politicians.

 

According to Dailydka, Estonia and Latvia are also trying to block a 75-million-euro project for installing a signaling system between Lithuania's border with Poland and Kaunas. Efforts are being made to initiate a new study even though Lithuania has already done one.

 

In his word's, Latvia and Estonia think that Lithuania, the first of the three countries to build a Rail Baltica segment between the border and Kaunas, will have a competitive advantage for at least ten years and, therefore, are trying to hinder it.






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