Investments are key to the development of Eesti Raudtee

Whilst the other Baltic countries are still considering whether to start work on the Rail Baltica project and discussing how extensive it should be, Estonia will soon be completing the reconstruction of the southbound railway line.

The group of undertakings under Eesti Raudtee was established on 14 January 2009, when the affiliate, AS EVR Infra, founded to manage the infrastructure. Another affiliate of Eesti Raudtee was also established at that time, namely the carrier of goods AS EVR Cargo. Consequently, EVR Infra has been running the infrastructure investment projects for the last two years.

The first stage of the Rail Baltica project to be finished in 2011 increases the speed of passenger trains on the route from Tallinn to Valga (approximately 300km of the whole line) to 120km/h. The speed will be increased to 160km/h during the next stage, and 1,435km of railway line will be built from Lithuania and Latvia to Tallinn, Estonia in the future.

Eesti Raudtee invested a total of €151.5 million between the years 2007-2010, which included €33 million of targeted financing from various Structural Funds of the European Union. Investments planned for 2011 amount to €90 million, including €32.2 million of targeted financing and €35 million for the Koidula border station.

Rail Baltica

Railway repair work on the Rail Baltica line was carried out in many stages. The 70km-long section between Tartu and Valga was reconstructed between 2008 and 2010. The repair work cost 34.2 million Kroons (plus the cost of materials), of which 27% was financed from the European Union TEN-T programme.

Approximately 90km of double-track lines between Tallinn and Tartu will be reconstructed in 2010-2011. These repair works cost €42 million (plus the cost of materials), of which 85% will be financed by the European Union Cohesion Fund. The major repairs on the Tallinn–Tartu line will include, as on the Tartu–Valga line, the replacement of all the superstructure of the railway (ballast, rails, sleepers etc). If necessary, the track bed will be widened, ballast will be cleaned and capacity increased, switch blades replaced, level crossings repaired and drainage facilities constructed or cleaned.

The rest of the tracks on the Rail Baltica line have gone through major repairs in previous years.

Koidula border station

The large-scale Koidula border station in southeast Estonia, which turned out to be one of the biggest infrastructure development projects in Estonia, will be completed in July 2011.

The construction of the Koidula border station with 10 track lines began on 17 March 2008. The size of land developed is 92 hectares. The station, which will be finished by 1 July 2011 and includes 25.5km of railways, a station and office buildings, a warehouse for customs authorities and the Veterinary and Food Board and a railway repair workshop.

The station connects the main railway tracks of Valga and Tartu in Estonia. The new border station will definitely improve the logistics of the movement of goods between Estonia and Russia. Also, the new transport axis from St. Petersburg to Latvia and Kaliningrad is very important.

The station will cost approximately €64 million, of which Eesti Raudtee will finance a little over half, with the state along with Riigi Kinnisvara Aktsiaselts also financing a part of the project.

A station with modern conditions for the inspection of cargo on the state border necessitates the development of container traffic and the carriage of animal and plant goods, for example for the inspection of goods that require plant health control. Koidula border station is equipped to handle all types of goods carried by railway. The capacity of the new border station is up to 40 pairs of trains in 24 hours.

Preparations for servicing new trains

Estonia has signed a contract with the Swiss train manufacturer Stadler Bussnang AG, according to which a total of 18 electrical and 20 diesel trains will be delivered to Estonia between 2012 and 2014.

Eesti Raudtee will reconstruct more than a hundred passenger platforms to the height of 55cm from the railhead by the end of 2012 to prepare the infrastructure for the new trains. This is also co-financed by the European Union with two projects: the Cohesion Fund project ‘Passenger platforms corresponding to EU requirements’ and the European Regional Development Fund project ‘Ensuring safety around passenger trains’. The funds will finance 85% of the reconstruction works, which will cost €16 million. A third of the new passenger platforms have now been built.

In addition to this, Eesti Raudtee is making preparations for the reconstruction of the railway and the whole contact lines on the Tallinn–Keila–Paldiski and Keila–Riisipere line. Eesti Raudtee has about 130km of contact lines on the railway lines around Tallinn. These reconstruction works should also be finished before the new trains arrive.

Eesti Raudtee has completely reconstructed its infrastructure in a few years by carrying out these projects. All these investments greatly increase the stability of Eesti Raudtee and guarantee that the company can operate for a long time with only minor failures.

Some figures about Eesti Raudtee’s infrastructure

Eesti Raudtee earned €107.4 million of net proceeds in 2010 with the group of undertakings under Eesti Raudtee earning €21 million of that net profit. In 2009, the proceeds were €97.15 million and the profit was €7.7 in 2009.

Turnover from the carriage of goods was 6.26 billion net tonne-kilometres in 2010, which is 669 million more than in 2009. A total of 29.63 million tonnes of goods were carried by the infrastructure of Eesti Raudtee in 2010. The capacity of carriage of goods increased by 4.25 million tonnes in a year, the capacity of international carriages increased by 2.84 and the capacity of local carriages increased by 1.41 million tonnes over the same period.

Eesti Raudtee cut labour and operating costs in 2010 and paid more attention to increasing the effectiveness by significantly raising the capacity of carriage of goods.

The carriage of goods by the infrastructure of Eesti Raudtee increased by 4 million tonnes or an increase of 16.9% when compared to 2009. Turnover from goods increased by 12% in a year with the total amounting to 6.26 billion net tonne-kilometres.

The carriage of petroleum and petroleum products increased by 15.9% in a year and this constituted for 69% or 20.36 million tonnes of the capacity. Internal carriage of oil shale doubled in a year, amounting to a total of 3.69 million tonnes. The carriage of fertilizers also doubled with capacity up to 2.24 million tonnes.

The capacity of coal decreased by 34% with a total of 1.33 million tonnes. Furthermore, the carriage of bulks decreased to 0.57 million tonnes or 33% less than the previous year. The carriage of chemical products also decreased by 13% to 0.4 million tonnes.

Transit made up 80.5% of the capacity on the railways in 2010, increasing by 13.7% in a year. The capacity of local carriages increased by more than 50% totalling 4.25 million tonnes. Exports increased by 8.7% to 0.61 million tonnes. Only imports decreased by 7% on the railway with a capacity of 0.92 million tonnes.

Concerning carriages crossing the state border, 23.58 million tonnes (an increase of 9.6%) were imported and 1.81 million tonnes (an increase of 73%) were exported by railway. Most of the imported goods were from Russia with a capacity of 20.1 million tonnes. The largest proportion of exports went to Belarus, totalling 0.81 million tonnes.

Container traffic on the railway amounted to 22,394 TEU in 2010, exceeding the carriages of 2009 by 40%. About half of the containers were sent to Russia. Carriages to Russia increased by 16%.

About the Author

Arvo Smiltinsh studied at Tallinn Technical University for a Road and Railway Engineering degree. His previous work experience has included roles such as, among others, Head of Track Condition Surveillance Group of the Renewal Department of Infrastructure Services and also Head of that same Department. Mr. Smiltinsh has been Member of the Management Board – Infrastructure Director at AS EVR Infra since 2009.