Lietuvos Geležinkelių (LTG) group company "LTG Link"starts consultations with market participants regarding the purchase of 10 or 14 passenger high-speed trains. They would be used from 2028, after the construction of the European railway line "Rail Baltica".
On the central public procurement portal, LTG Link stated that it is considering several alternatives for the purchase of trains, the best of which is 14 trains with 250 seats each. Other options are 14 trains with 200 seats or 10 trains that could each carry 300 passengers.
"The published technical specification indicates the preliminary quantities of high-speed trains that LTG Link plans to transport on the European gauge railway. The consultation does not include the plans of other carriers that plan to provide services on the Rail Baltica line," LTG's communication partner Novilė Valančė told BNS on Thursday.
Along with the trains, a 30-year maintenance and staff training service would be purchased.
"At this stage, our goal is to gather information about the trains being produced, the data will be used for the planning stage, cost-benefit analysis and procurement budgeting," says LTG Link.
"LTG Link" indicates that the conditions of the future tender are to be prepared next year, the tender will be announced no earlier than 2024, and the contract with the winner will be signed in 2025.
In this way, it is desired to form the company's entire high-speed train fleet for Rail Baltica. LTG Link states that the first two trains will start running regularly between Warsaw and Panevėžys via Kaunas from the third quarter of 2028, between Vilnius and Kaunas and Warsaw around 2030, and later between Vilnius and Riga and Tallinn, Kaunas and Warsaw.
Officially announcing that Rail Baltica will be built in 2026, the representative of LTG says that the purchase of new trains and the start of their use do not necessarily coincide with the end of the construction of the new line.
"The deadlines are preliminary, given taking into account the currently existing deadlines for the production of new trains, which do not necessarily have to coincide with the start of LTG Link's journeys on Rail Baltica routes, since LTG Link, together with its partners, is already operating in existing and plans to operate in newly built in the railway sections as soon as they are ready for use", said N. Valanče.
Until now, it has been announced that Rail Baltica should connect Tallinn, Pern, Riga, Panevėžys, Kaunas, Vilnius and Warsaw from 2026, this section will extend 392 kilometers in Lithuania. It will allow passenger trains to travel at speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour, and freight trains at speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour.
As Lithuanian Railways prepares to fully electrify the Vilnius-Klaipeda, LTG Link has announced about 30 preliminary about 200 mln. tender for the purchase of passenger trains worth EUR.
The Ministry of Transport informed BNS that the updated bids received from its participants in the first half of September and the tender procedures are continuing.
Construction of the 169-kilometer Rail Baltica section from Kaunas to the Lithuanian-Latvian border began in April.
Previously, it was planned that the total value of the project will reach about 5,8 billion. euros, later it was claimed that it rose to 7 billion. euros, but the official recalculated price of the project has not yet been published. In 2014-2021, more than 1,2 billion was allocated to the project. euros, this year another few hundred million euros have been allocated.
Author Valdas Pryšmantas
