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Via Baltica and Rail Baltica projects
discussed in Poland
Valerijus Panomariovas, vice-minister of transport
and communications of the Republic of Lithuania, was invited by Jan Richard Kurilchik,
state secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Poland, to participate in the meeting
discussing implementation of the international transport projects Via Baltica and Rail
Baltica.
The meeting organised in September 2004 was honoured by great attention of presidents of
Lithuania and Poland Valdas Adamkus and Alexander Kwasniewski.
Since Lithuania joined the EU in May 2004, the freight corridors crossing our country have
become the EU inland transport highways. In recent years the traffic of all modes of
transport in Lithuanian–Polish border crossings has increased by 167 %, the transport
flow between Lithuania and other EU countries has also grown remarkably. All that
increases the significance of the Via Baltic highway even more. In 2004-2006 the EU
Cohesion Fund will assign 80.8 million litas for the modernization of the highway.
Nevertheless, this investment programme is not sufficient to complete the reconstruction
and renovation works because the highway extends for 665 km through the Baltic States and
340 km on the territory of Poland. Moreover, some sections of the road do not comply with
the established requirements thus causing problems for the intensifying traffic. Therefore
Lithuania is interested that countries participating in this project would use all the
potential of the EU support for timely reconstruction and modernization of Via Baltica.
The meeting also discussed implementation of the Rail Baltica project. After the EU
Commission included it into the list of priority projects last year, Poland and the Baltic
States harmonized their political decisions regarding this rail highway, common technical
standards and the implementation terms. The main guidelines of the project were approved:
the general investment will reach 3.39 billion euro, including 800 million euro on the
territory of Lithuania. The railway segment Warsaw-Kaunas should be built by 2010. At
present pre-project works of the segment from the Polish border till Kaunas have started
in Lithuania.
According to the vice-minister of transport and communications of Lithuania, our country
is planning to complete the first stage of the project in time by laying 85 km of railway
line, the estimated value of which will amount to 300 million euro.
Revision of development of Transport Corridor
I
Alminas Maciulis, state secretary of the Lithuanian Ministry
of Transport and Communications met Martin Bright and Jan Frydberg, European Commission
experts carrying out the revision of Transport Corridor I development.
The experts were interested what problems Lithuania faced and what prospects it saw for
the development of Transport Corridor I. State secretary of the ministry A.Maciulis
emphasized that the development of the corridor was very important not only for Lithuania,
but also for Latvia and Estonia.
The amount of cargo carried by Via Baltica keeps increasing each year, therefore according
to A.Maciulis, it is necessary to create railway infrastructure, i.e. to implement the
Rail Baltica project. After this railway is constructed, part of cargo will be transferred
from road transport to railroad. That would help solving problems of traffic safety and
environmental protection and would also facilitate and speed up passenger connection
between the Baltic region and the EU.
Civil aviation strategy approved
The Board of Transport and Communications Ministry
approved the civil aviation strategy for the liberalized market till the year 2015.
The objective of the strategy – securing the Lithuanian inhabitants’ possibility to
use air transport service with economically based prices, creating transport business
environment favorable for competition, integrating Lithuanian air transport into national
and European multimodal passenger and cargo transit system.
One of the strategic goals is, by the year 2005, increase Lithuanian civil aviation share
in the national GDP up to a half of the EU countries’ average, being 1 percent of their
GDP.
By the year 2015, the outlook for Lithuanian airports is to serve 2.15 million passengers
at the least, with the moderate expectations - 2.6 million is predicted, and if the best
scenario works out – 3.22 passengers will be served.
Zigmantas Balcytis, the Minister of Transport and Communications elaborates on the
necessity to plan airports’ infrastructure for 30 and more years ahead and stresses the
urgency to make the decision on the development of Lithuanian airports’ system as a
whole. That is why the board offered JSC Ekonomines konsultacijos ir tyrimai, the planner
of the strategy to study several more scenarios in detail, main of them being the
perspective Vilnius airport development, Vilnius – Kaunas dipole project merging Vilnius
and Kaunas airport facilities, and the construction of an alternative airport.
The Netherlands are interested in Lithuanian
air transport
On October 28 Rob de Wijn, Alliance and Route
Development director of Dutch national carriers KLM - Royal Dutch Lines visited the
Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The Dutch air company has been cooperating with the Lithuanian air company Lietuvos
Avialinijos (LAL) for several years – since November 1999 they use a common tariff
scheme (LAL/KLM/Northwest). It has allowed LAL to increase employment of seats offered by
extra flights. On March 1, 2000 both companies signed a common code contract under which
tickets in both countries are sold on equal terms.
Today, Vilnius – Amsterdam is one of the most dynamically developing air flights due to
cooperation of Lietuvos Avialinijos company with KLM – Royal Dutch Airlines. Since the
summer of 2004, 14 Vilnius - Amsterdam flights are done per week. The passengers are
served by B737 - 500 planes on these trips.
10 transport infrastructure projects approved
The total value of these projects is 460 million litas; 376
million litas were allocated for the implementation. 328 million litas out of them are the
means of ERDF and 48 million litas of state budget. The receivers of the support are
obliged to allocate the rest of the sum for projects’ implementation.
Roads reconstruction will include asphalting gravel roads, renovating country and regional
roads, implementing safe traffic scheme.
By the end of 2004, it is planned to start the reconstruction of rail platforms and
tunnels in Vilnius railway station, and from 2005 – the reconstruction of railway
sections Kuziai – Mazeikiai and Vilnius – Stasylos, also the modernization of rail
rolling-stock automatic control devices.
Two modernization projects of international airports in Palanga and Kaunas were approved.
Fencing of Palanga airport perimeter will be reconstructed and signal system of taking off
– landing in Kaunas airport will be modernized under these projects.
Implementation of the approved projects will require reconstruction of the railway unit in
Klaipeda port, moreover, feasibility studies for arranging inland waterway by the Nemunas
River and adapting it for passenger and cargo shipping must be fulfilled.
Ryanair planning flights to Lithuania
Valdemaras Salauskas, secretary of the Ministry of
Transport and Communications and the delegation of the Irish air company Ryanair headed by
Bernard Berger, director of the Department for new flights development, discussed
opportunities of cooperation.
Ryanair representatives confirmed their intention to start service in Lithuania next year.
Together with the representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of
Lithuania they discussed the technical possibilities of the company, the number of flights
planned, the routes, and fees. Ryanair plans to start its activity in Kaunas airport in
September 2005. The company expects to transport up to 200 000 passengers per year.
Having started cheap flights in 1985, now the Irish air company has 11 bases. It
transports passengers by 161 routes to 87 destinations in 17 European countries.
At present, the company is intensively developing the cheap flight business all over
Europe. Although the company does not provide meals for passengers on board, and tickets
can be obtained only by internet, the prices are significantly lower and more attractive
for customers.
Recently, Ryanair has announced starting passenger flights from the capital of Latvia
Riga.
SAS flights from Palanga airport
Since November 1, SAS Air Company of Scandinavia
started carrying passengers from Palanga to Kopenhagen. Canadair Regional Jet, a
two-engine jet aircraft of 48 passenger’s capacity is operating on this route.
At present, the international Palanga airport accommodates passenger aircrafts of these
types: YK-40, YK-42, BOEING – 737, SAAB – 340, Jetstream-32, ATR-42.
In 2004, Palanga airport took the second position in Lithuania by the number of passengers
served. The airport offers flights to Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Belgium,
Sweden, Great Britain, France and the Czech Republic. Flights to Russia and Belarus are
planned as well.
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