Rail Baltica Proposal

https://emerging-europe.com/news/high-s ... -per-cent/

A major new report from Swedbank, a Nordic-Baltic banking group based in Stockholm, Sweden, claims that the construction of a high speed rail link between the Estonian capital Tallinn and Lithuania’s border with Poland could lift GDP in each of the three Baltic states by between 0.2 and 0.6 per cent.
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The aim of Rail Baltica is to connect the three Baltic states (and Finland) with Central and Western Europe via a new, fast, electrified railway that will offer speeds of up to 250 k/ph for passenger trains, and 125 k/ph for goods trains. Travel time between Tallinn and Riga will be cut to one hour 40 minutes, and from Tallinn to Vilnius three hours and 40 minutes.

The railway is estimated to cost around 5.8 billion euros, which represents 5.4 per cent of Baltic GDP in 2019. As much as 80 per cent of the total cost is scheduled to be met by the European Union. Most of the construction work is expected to take place between 2022 and 2026, although tenders have already been launched for some projects.
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The first phase of the project (Rail Baltica I), from the Polish border to the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, was completed in October 2015. The second phase (Rail Baltica II) will complete the project, connecting Kaunas, Riga and Tallinn with an electrified doubletrack line.
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Underway: Euronews

The high-speed railway that’s uncoupling the Baltic states from Russia and their Soviet past

The largest infrastructure project in the Baltic region for a hundred years is under way.

The 870 km Rail Baltica project, which is due for completion in 2030, will connect the capitals of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia with Warsaw and the rest of Europe, allowing trains from the continent to run uninterrupted.

However, the project is symbolic as well as physical.

For the EU, it’s a statement about the Baltic states’ return to Europe and their decoupling from their Soviet past.
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While it currently takes seven hours to drive from Lithuania’s capital to Estonia’s, the new line will almost halve that to just three hours and 38 minutes.

The railway will begin in Tallinn before passing through Pärnu, Rīga, Panevėžys, and Kaunas before reaching the Lithuanian-Polish border; there will also be a connection to Vilnius from Kaunas.
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So which is it; Standard of Wide?

While the Baltics used to be connected by European rail standards of 1435 mm gauge, since its Soviet occupation, the region’s rail system adopted the Russian gauge which is 1524 mm.

The article only "hints" of Standard, but does not positively say so.

So....enquiring mind wants to know.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:39 am So which is it; Standard of Wide?

While the Baltics used to be connected by European rail standards of 1435 mm gauge, since its Soviet occupation, the region’s rail system adopted the Russian gauge which is 1524 mm.

The article only "hints" of Standard, but does not positively say so.

So....enquiring mind wants to know.

It will be standard gauge. A little bit from Mockava to Sestokai in Lithuania is already dual gauge. The port of Klaipeda in Latvia is heavily lobbying to be included in the Rail Baltica proposal even though it is not on the projected route which includes only the three capital cities, plus Kaunas in Lithuania.