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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 02:34

Latvia rejects proposal to have Rail Baltic route run through Valga

BC, Tallinn, 29.11.2016.Print version
Officials from the Latvian Ministry of Transport met on Tuesday with members of the governing board of the Tartu chapter of the Estonian Free Party to inform the latter that the route of Rail Baltic in Latvia has already been endorsed by the Cabinet of Ministers and will not be changed, writes LETA/BNS.

The Free Party had expressed the wish to change the location of the Rail Baltic route, including in the territory of Latvia, to make the railway pass through the city of Tartu in Estonia and cross the Estonian-Latvian border in Valga.


The Latvian representatives highlighted the detailed research process, environmental impact assessment and public consultations that have been carried out in Latvia pursuant to the common understanding of the Baltic countries – to make decisions and act in accordance with a common purpose.


They said that during the planning of the location of the project route in the Baltic states a conceptual agreement was reached that it should be as straight as possible, as this would provide maximum benefits at the lowest cost. The shorter and more direct the route is, the faster traffic it is able to ensure, being also economically more advantageous than potential alternatives. This was confirmed by the study in 2011 done by AECOM, which looked at four options for the location of the route in the three Baltic countries.


In addition, the Latvian Ministry of Transport has received the official positions of the three Latvian municipalities which the proposed Tartu route would cross – Sigulda, Cesis and Valmiera – as regards the initiative of the Tartu county board of the Free Party of Estonia. None of the municipalities expressed their support to this initiative.

Based on the above reasoning and careful assessment of the alternative routes in the territory of Latvia, the Latvian government already in August approved the Rail Baltic railway line route location in Latvia as crossing the border of Estonia in Salacgriva municipality, five kilometers east of Ainazi, and the border with Lithuania in Bauska municipality, close to Grenctale, the Latvian ministry said.






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