The long-delayed and increasingly costly Rail Baltica project will not be completed by 2030 as previously planned, and there is no final deadline for finishing the full rail line, the European Court of Auditors said Monday.
“And for Rail Baltica, which was once expected to be completed by 2030, the situation is even more uncertain,” Annemie Turtelboom, a member of the European Court of Auditors, told a virtual news conference. “Now, 2030 is the envisaged date to complete only a first phase, and therefore, there is no timeline for the full project.”
According to the auditors, the estimated cost of the European standard-gauge rail project has increased 2.6 times over the past six years to 23.8 billion euros, nearly four times the initial estimate.
Turtelboom said the cost overruns stem from the project’s lack of maturity, repeated changes in scope and alterations to the design.
“There are also now, instead of one phase, two phases, and the fact that you split a project into two at a certain point also has an impact,” she said.
Turtelboom added that the European Union’s goal of completing the core Trans-European Transport Network, known as TEN-T, by 2030 is no longer achievable and that prospects for meeting the deadline are worsening.
She noted that the total cost of all eight major EU infrastructure projects reviewed by the auditors has risen by 24% over the past six years, driven largely by the Lyon-Turin rail link and Rail Baltica.
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