The European Union's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) has signed two agreements worth EUR 1.4 billion (USD 1.475 billion) to speed up the completion of the Rail Baltica project.
Of this amount, EUR 1.2 billion (USD 1.265 billion) will be funded by CEF and the remainder will be co-financed by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Works planned in Estonia include 58 km of mainline construction, which will cost EUR 440 million (USD 463 million). Of this, EUR 352 million (USD 371 million) will come from the CEF and EUR 88 million (USD 92 million) from national sources. Construction will take place on multiple substructure works. Latvia will undertake EUR 397 million (USD 418 million) of work. This will mainly go towards the line between Misa and the Latvian-Lithuanian border. Money will also be spent on an infrastructure maintenance facility in Skulte.
On the Latvia and Lithuania border, EUR 529 million (USD 557 million) will be spent on 37 km of substructure works and 69 km of track that will be laid between Kaunas and the border. A further EUR 29 million (USD 30 million) will go into electrification and overseeing design continuity, system engineering, risk management, and project management.
It was recently estimated that the price of the 870 km line will rise from EUR 19 billion (USD 20 billion) to EUR 25 billion (USD 26.3 billion), more than four times the 2017 estimate of EUR 5.8 billion (USD 6.1 billion). Construction of the main line will take place in stages, with work beginning in 2026 and finishing in 2030.
