March 2013

During the EU budget negotiations, the Connecting Europe Facility received 32 BEUR, of which 23 BEUR went to transport and infrastructure. As the original Commission proposal for the CEF was 50 BEUR, the question was raised whether this decision would have an impact on the EU funding for Rail Baltica.

“Although the numbers are smaller than the Commission expected, the fact is that there are still more funds allocated to transport for 2014-2020 than in the current budgetary framework. Trans-port has finally been recognized as a driver of growth and connectivity as essential for economic growth and competitiveness. What happens next? The budgetary process is not over, and the EP will have its say. The CEF, and transport within that, are amongst the EP’s top priorities for the budget negotiations. We hope that they may be able to regain some ground. In these very tough economic times we respect the decision of the national budgetary authorities. For Rail Baltica, all the modalities are there now, and the realization of the project is now only in the hands of the Governments of Baltic States”, Vice President Siim Kallas, commenting for AmCham Finland, the organizer of the conference Rail Baltica: Business Opportunity of a Lifetime in Helsinki on February 15th, 2013.

RBGC RESEARCH & PILOTSRAIL BALTICA TASK FORCE PAST & UPCOMING EVENTS

“The establishment of the Joint Venture would be a very practical step, since it would save a lot of money in the construction phase”, says Miiko Peris on the Rail Baltica Joint Venture.

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RBGC research section presents an outlook for new transport market solutions along Rail Baltica and the corridor’s impact on the capital region of Warsaw.

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The winter season was marked by extensive growth of interest towards Rail Baltica. Read several highlights from the conferences fo-cused on the megaproject.

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FOREWORDThe Rail Baltica Growth Corridor pro-ject has come to its final and most intriguing phase. This spring all the results, stakeholders’ views and les-sons learned will be integrated into a format of the Rail Baltica Growth Strategy.

The work of the Baltic States’ min-istries of transport in preparing the Rail Baltic Joint Venture has taken clear steps towards the realization of Rail Baltic. Similarly, the Connecting Europe Facility, which is meant to be the main financing instrument for the new 1435 mm railway line, and its po-litical support in Corridor Platforms are under vibrant discussion at the EU level.

The RBGC partners have a common interest in supporting both develop-ments, and moreover they are part of the framework in our Growth Strategy. The Strategy builds on the project’s research activities and in the ongoing pilots that focus on the intermodal logistics and travel planner develop-ment. The final phase of RBGC has two milestone events: on April 9th a confer-ence in Brussels on Corridor Platforms organized together with the EP TRAN Committee, and the RBGC Final Con-ference on June 14th in Berlin.

The Rail Baltica Growth Corridor (RBGC) is part of a Flagship Project within the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR).

LEAD PARTNER

City of HelsinkiMr Olli Keinänenolli.keinanen@hel.fi

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Aalto University, FinlandMs Malla Paajanenmalla.paajanen@aalto.fi

Part-financed by the EU (European Regional Development Fund)

COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION

City of Helsinki Aalto University, Finland Mr Sakari Saarinen Mr Dima Stepanchuk sakari.saarinen@hel.fi dima.stepanchuk@aalto.fi

EU FINANCIAL UPDATES

EU FINANCIAL UPDATES | TASK FORCE | RBGC RESEARCH & PILOTS | RAIL BALTICA EVENTS

Vice President Siim Kallas at the RBGC stand, TEN-T Days in Brussels

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“Many companies operating on the global and European levels have their offices in the Baltic States. Rail Baltica will allow for more effective communication between the offices

and distribution centers in the Baltic region and increase sustainable mobility. This will facilitate the development of businesses in Latvia, both in the centre of the country and in the regions.”

Natalja Sterhova, Latvian Transport Development and Education Association

“From the point of view of the City of Bialystok, the positive impact of Rail Baltica devel-opment will occur in social and economic development of the city through better con-

nection with the main economic centres in Poland and North and West Europe. Besides the rail-way modernization, the construction of transshipment junctions and development of logistics centres are also important for Bialystok.”

Tadeusz Truskolaski, Mayor of the City of Bialystok, Poland

TASK FORCE

Rail Baltic Task Force – the international working group set up to advance the realization of new Rail Baltic railway line – has kicked off very well. The group has agreed upon a common work-plan and joint delivera-bles. The partner

countries of Rail Baltic are now working on their respective contracts and studies. Ac-cording to the work-plan, the preliminary design, spatial plans and environmental studies are to be delivered by the end of 2015.

All this has to be seen in a completely dif-ferent light after the agreement with the EU budget. The budget deal is a key turn-ing point for the project – finally the money for the construction works is there. Hence, the project has become entirely realistic to achieve. It should further boost the motiva-tion to advance with the preparatory works and to fulfill the work-plan. All parties must do their share in terms of preparatory work in order to ensure equal opportunities to apply for funding from the Connecting Eu-rope Facility.

The study for the Rail Baltic Joint Venture is to be finalized soon. The aim of the study is to analyze a wide array of aspects in regard to the Joint Venture (including taxes and differences in the laws). The consultant is to deliver a sizeable report and, based on the facts, provide an independent as-sessment of the best ‘building blocks’ for the Joint Venture. The decision of the es-tablishment will be taken by the Baltic Transport Ministers. The relevant ministe-rial meeting has been re-scheduled for the end of March 2013.

The establishment of the Joint Venture would be a very practical step, since it would save a lot of money in the con-struction phase. This is due to the VAT costs, which will increase the budget if the Member States directly do the construc-tion works, whereas the Joint Venture can reclaim those expenses under the existing tax regulations. The overall efficiency in the scope of the construction works is also one of the objectives of establishing the Joint Venture. The Joint Venture, once es-tablished, shall work very closely with the Task Force, since both are necessary.

By Miiko Peris Advisor, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication, Estonia

FUNDINGBaltic Sea Region Programme 2011-2013

LEAD PARTNERCity of Helsinki, Finland

COORDINATIONAalto University Small Business Center Helsinki, Finland

PARTNERSHIP21 partners from 6 countries

TARGET GROUPSCity and regional authorities Transport service providers Logistics centers Intermodal terminals Public transport authorities Universities and research centers

BUDGET 3,6 MEUR

DURATION 9/2010—9/2013

WEBSITEwww.rbgc.eu

TAKING STEPS TO ESTABLISH RAIL BALTIC JOINT VENTURE

RBGC PARTNERS VIEWS ON RAIL BALTICA

Turku

København

Gdynia

Malmö

Berlin

Warsaw

Kaunas

Riga

HelsinkiSt.PetersburgTallinn

Stockholm

Hannover

Hamburg

Białystok

PoznańŁodź

Turku

København

Gdynia

Malmö

Berlin

Warsaw

Kaunas

Riga

HelsinkiSt.PetersburgTallinn

Stockholm

Hannover

Hamburg

Białystok

PoznańŁodź

“Once completed, the new Rail Baltica will play an important role in many aspects of re-gional and local activities for Mazovia. Rail Baltica can be the needed impulse to develop

many new investments.”

Michal Hackiewicz, Mazovian Voivodship, Poland

PROJECT NEWSLETTER

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RBGC RESEARCH AND PILOTS

New transport market solutions

The study in the Travel and Logistics Service Development and Demand theme investi-gates the private sector perspectives towards development of transport networks in the Eastern Baltic Sea Region. The primary ob-jective is to shed light on the current and pro-spective interest in, potential of, expectations towards, and market behavior of private businesses in regard to Rail Baltica.

The study covers companies whose op-erations focus on passenger service, freight service, freight service recipients, and logis-tics centre operators and developers. The most popular means of transport among the surveyed companies is road transport, but the results also show that rail transport is becoming more popular among logis-tics centre operators and developers and freight service recipients.

The companies that do not currently use rail transport exhibit moderate inter-est in expanding their portfolio by using rail, although it is noteworthy that Finn-ish companies distinguish themselves as more attracted to the idea than other national respondents. The interest in em-ploying rail transport would grow along with reductions in prices and improve-ments in physical accessibility, mean-ing the construction of new lines, car-go handling terminals and side tracks. The rail infrastructure improvement is ex-pected to ensure lower shipping and seat

costs and shorter travelling times. Signifi-cant importance is attached to enhanced reliability and greater connections to other means of transport. Thus, ensuring and coordinating these elements is vital to the overall success of the Rail Baltica. It will bring opportunities for growth to countries and regions within the corridor. It will stim-ulate the economy in the area of transport and logistics, but also in the production and service sectors.

Rail Baltica impact in Mazovia Region

The study presents the interests and needs of the City of Warsaw and the surrounding Ma-zovia Region towards Rail Baltica. In Poland, Warsaw and Mazovia are the places where benefits and challenges from Rail Baltica modernization will appear first.

The study identifies the future impacts of Rail Baltica in Mazovia. The aim is to antici-pate the direction of changes and to fore-cast the most favorable localizations for new multimodal centers. Modernization of Rail Baltica could bring a real chance to change the very disadvantageous bal-ance of cargo flows between Poland and the Baltic States, where 95% of freight is still transported by road. Increase of speed and logistics infrastructure accessibility to-gether with standardized gauge along the whole corridor will contribute to shifting the cargo flows from roads to railways.

The cargo flows between Poland and the Baltic States are currently low and rather limited to raw materials and food but, on the other hand, its potential is expected to increase with the ongoing moderniza-tion of Rail Baltica. The share of railway transport should also grow due to the re-alization of EU transport policies like White Paper 2011, sulphur directives and envi-ronmental requirements.

From the Mazovian point of view, Rail Bal-tica has great potential as the source of the future economic growth. However, there are still multiple challenges to the realiza-tion of Rail Baltica as an economic growth corridor and questions concerning spatial planning, infrastructure development and environment. The RBGC project is a unique occasion to strengthen regional and Euro-pean cohesion and competitiveness in the Eastern Baltic Sea Region in the most effec-tive and sustainable way.

RBGC LOGISTICS CHAIN

The RBGC logistics pilot will bring the first outcomes during the spring 2013. At this stage, the RBGC partnership works to define a chain of logistics centers that would be able to offer customers a common service concept throughout the Eastern Baltic Sea Region. The RBGC logistics chain will include around ten intermodal centers – one or two from each country along the Rail Baltica corridor.

Currently, different countries around the Baltic Sea use diverse criteria and service definitions in the field of logistics. This mismatch hinders customers finding the services they need. Disconnected compo-sition of actors results in high prices and long delivery times. Other logistics chal-lenges in the Baltic Sea Region addressed by the logistics pilot are the weak railway infrastructure and road transport domina-tion on the North-South axis.

To solve the problem of logistics centers interoperability, the selection criteria for RBGC logistics chain have been chosen. The benchmark for harmonized quality standards has been set by the multimodal freight village Berlin South Grossbeeren promoted together with the city of Lud-wigsfelde.

The information profiles of the business- and industrial locations near Grossbeeren have been worked out and added to the Internet-based intermodal node informa-tion system INIS. Developed by IPG mbH, the INIS system helps cargo shippers to find operating companies for each opera-tional transshipment point and provides additional information regarding side op-erators, public terminals for intermodal transport and logistics infrastructure (e.g. traction, transshipment equipment) in each location. INIS may be considered as a basis for the development of comparable information profiles for business and in-dustrial areas with railway sidings and/or transshipment terminals in Poland, Lithu-ania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Finland. INIS is now available at the URL below

GLEISANSCHLUSS-BRANDENBURG.DE

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RBGC RESEARCH RESULTS GO PUBLIC

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FULL REPORTS: RBGC.EU/MATERIALS/REPORTS_ARTICLES

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RAIL BALTICA EVENTS

Rail Baltica: Business Opportunity of a Lifetime

The conference entitled Rail Baltica: Busi-ness Opportunity of a Lifetime was organ-ized by the American Chamber of Com-merce in Finland on February 15th, 2013 in Helsinki. The event was shaped by two panel discussions focusing on the visions of Helsinki and Tallinn as twin cities and on the feasibility, status and business po-tential of Rail Baltica. The panelists high-lighted the need for stimulating further economic growth on the project area and elaborated on the results of the financial negotiations at the European Council. The latter has recently approved two financing periods 2014-2020 and 2021-2027, and earmarked 10 billion euros for transport in the cohesion fund. RBGC Project Manager Malla Paajanen participated as a panelist in the conference.

Rail Baltica European Coordinator and Advisor visit Helsinki

Rail Baltica European Coordinator Pavel Telička and Advisor to Rail Baltica at the European Commission James Pond visited Helsinki on January 28th, 2012 to exchange views with the local stakeholders on the progress of Rail Baltica. The EU guests paid visits to the Ministry of Transport, the May-or’s Office of the City of Helsinki and Metsä Group, and met representatives from the Finnish Transport Agency and Office of Economic Development of the City of Hel-sinki. The meeting was hosted by the City of Helsinki as Lead Partner and Aalto Uni-versity Small Business Center as Coordina-tor of the RBGC project.

RBGC at TEN-T Days 2012 in Brussels

RBGC participated in the TEN-T Exhibition in Brussels November 29th-30th, 2012. The RBGC stand was visited by Vice-President Siim Kallas and a large number of other stake-holders interested in learning about the ac-tivities of RBGC. The RBGC stand was organ-ized by the City of Helsinki, Aalto University, City of Kaunas, and the EU Office of Helsinki.

Rail Baltica — dream, politics or business?

The international conference Rail Baltica — Dream, politics or business?, organized by law firm alliance TRINITY on 30th November 2012, brought together the representatives of both private and public sectors of the Baltic States to discuss the viability of the Rail Baltica project. The event showed that Rail Baltica is still considered a political pro-ject in the Baltic States, and the local busi-ness community finds it rather difficult to find its place in the development scenario – although the existence of business po-tential is acknowledged. The relatively low actual demand for the transport in Rail Bal-tica corridor is to be enhanced by getting Finnish, Russian and Chinese cargo onto Baltic rails. The presentation by Project Manager Malla Paajanen can be found at www.rbgc.eu/materials

H-T Transplan final conference

The outcomes of the H-T Transplan project were summed up in Helsinki, 22.11.2012. The project studies showed that Rail Bal-tica would further impact the tightening of logistic connections between Helsinki and Tallinn if supported on both national and EU levels.

RAIL BALTICA PUBLIC HIGHLIGHTS

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Towards Corridor Platforms: Case Rail Baltic conference will be organised at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tues-day, April 9th, 2013. The conference gathers together Mem-bers of the European Parliament, repre-sentatives of EU Commission, RBGC cities, regions and countries and private sector stakeholders to discuss the status of and expectations on EU finances, TEN-T policy and corridor platforms in regard to Rail Baltic. The conference is hosted by Petri Sarvamaa, Finnish Member of the Euro-pean Parliament. RBGC organizes this con-ference jointly with MEP Sarvamaa’s office and Helsinki EU Office in Brussels.

Follow updates and conference info at rbgc.eu/towards_corridor_platforms

The Final Conference of RBGC, Rail Bal-tic Corridor — Partnership for Growth, will take place on Friday, June 14th 2013 in Berlin.

The conference is an important mile-stone for the development of Rail Baltic as it presents the results of three years of transnational cooperation in RBGC and discusses ideas for further steps. Siim Kal-las, Vice-President of the European Com-mission in charge of transport, will give the keynote speech on the TEN-T policies and corridor development. The confer-ence will be followed by a joint train ride, the ‘Rail Baltic Express’, from Berlin to Kaunas, providing an extended discus-sion forum for experts and stakeholders.

RBGC.EU/FINAL_CONFERENCE

Towards Corridor PlatformsCase Rail Baltic

AECOM Director Arnis Kakulis, RBGC Project Manager Malla Paajanen, TRINITY Partner Tõnis Tamme

READ MORE NEWS: RBGC.EU/NEWS