Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Railways, Transport

RB Rail is not using the incorrect name form accidentally in its official statements, but it has been centrally decided in Riga to use the same name form in all Baltic countries, Kadri Lainas, partner at the Akkadian communication agency offering communications services to Rail Baltic, told BNS.

She added that there has been no direct discussion with her on the use of the incorrect name form of Rail Baltic. "I presume that they have worked it through, that they have decided that it is like a brand name and I think that when it comes to brand names, the owner has the right to decide in what way they want it to be written and declined. Also based on the rules of the Estonian language," Lainas said.

Chief of communications at RB Rail Ilze Rassa said that using the name form common in Latvia and Lithuania in all Baltic countries enables to better market the project internationally. She said that international brands are sometimes better if their names include a mistake.

Rassa said that the supervisory board of RB Rail, which since this summer has been led by Edvins Berzins and includes two people from each Baltic country, decided to use the name form common for Latvians and Lithuanians also in Estonia.

The Institute of the Estonian Language in a language advice published on its website has said that the name form used in the Estonian language should be Rail Baltic.

The linguistic presentation of names should be in accordance with the rules of the specific language, the institute said. For example, in the Latin composite name Via Baltica, which in translation means the "Baltic (high)way", the adjective Baltica has a female suffix -a, as the preceding noun "via" is female.

According to the institute, the English word "rail" can only be combined with the Latin root "Baltic" as an English adjective and no gender suffixes of other languages are added to it. Thus the correct name form is Rail Baltic, which does not seek to combine elements from different languages, the institute said.

In the Estonian language, Rail Baltic is written in Roman type and declined with an -u, for example the genitive "Rail Balticu" and partitive "Rail Balticut."

When speaking about Rail Baltic in Latvia and Lithuania, the name form Rail Baltica is used.

RB Rail is a joint venture established by the three Baltic countries in October 2014. The Rail Baltic project seeks to establish a direct railway connection between the Baltic states and the European railway network enabling speeds of up to 240 kilometers per hour for passenger trains and 120 kilometers per hour for freight trains.