Lietuvos geležinkeliai | Silvija Travel Tips

The European Commission has announced that it has approved investments of more than €114 million from the Cohesion Fund to purchase new electric trains in Latvia’s Riga and Pieriga region.

In a statement issued on April 21, the European Commission also revealed that the Cohesion Fund had approved €158 million for the electrification of the railway section between Kaišiadorys and Klaipeda, Lithuania, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

At the same time, more than €60 million in investments have also been approved by the European Regional Development Fund to improve flood protection in the Karlovac-Sisak area of Croatia.

In this regard, the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, expressed great happiness for approving these three significant investments in Latvia and Lithuania’s environmentally friendly public transport.

“These cohesion policy investments will significantly improve the quality of life for Latvian, Lithuanian and Croatian citizens,” she also added.

The investment in Latvia consists of the purchase of 23 multi-passenger electric trains for the Latvian Railways.

These new trains will help replace some of Latvia’s obsolete vehicles. They will also increase the attractiveness of railways and the annual number of public transport journeys undertaken in the country using environmentally friendly vehicles, which should reach at least 2.7 million in 2023.

Similarly, the electrification of the railway section in Lithuania will reduce environmental pollution by contributing to a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy in rail transport.

The section is a component of the 423.9 km line linking Klaipėda with the Lithuania-Belarus border. Lithuania’s electrified line currently accounts for only 8 per cent of its railway network. At the moment, the Klaipėda-Kaišiadorys section only uses diesel traction, whose emissions account for 3 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the Lithuanian transport sector,” the statement reads.

In addition, the European Commission notes that to increase the EU’s rail efficiency, the electrification of railway lines is a key provision of the TENT-T development guidelines.

Telia Lietuva and Lithuanian Railways (Lietuvos Geležinkeliai) (LTG) have signed two agreements according to which Telia Lietuva will design and implement data transmission solutions in the LTG network. Both agreements might be worth up to EUR 7 million.

It will be one of the largest projects on LTG network modernisation in Lithuania in the last decade. It will cover all levels – starting from replacement of network nodes, implementation of security and network management systems and finishing with cable installation and transfer of the existing services to the upgraded network.

“This agreement is a very important opportunity for us to make use of our knowledge and experience in designing and implementing data transmission networks. The fact that the structure of the network which we ourselves continuously develop and maintain is very similar to the planned critical network of LTG gives as an additional advantage,” – Daniel Karpovič, Head of Enterprise at Telia Lietuva, said.

The maximum value of the contracts signed by Telia Lietuva and LTG amounts to around EUR 7 million in total, excluding VAT. However, depending on the outcome of the negotiations and the final proposals received, the project costs may be lower.

The project consists of five parts, responsibility for which will be assumed by different suppliers and will be carried out in stages. Telia Lietuva will be responsible for two parts of the project. The signed agreements stipulate that the company will develop the LTG network architecture, design and deploy optical signal multiplexing and critical data networks, and deliver the necessary equipment for these networks within two years. It will also ensure coordination of the project with other suppliers and compatibility of their solutions.

One of the major works is the migration of the existing systems and services into the new network. To implement this stage, Telia Lietuva plans to use its extensive experience in the field of data transmission network maintenance. Prior to the commencement of the main project works, deployers of the critical and corporate networks will be required to demonstrate the suitability of the proposed solutions by demonstrating the operation of the solutions in the LTG infrastructure.

LTG data transmission network is an integral part of the railway infrastructure, it is the main mean connecting railway users, business, communication, information and traffic management systems. Reliable data transmission will be important for smooth and secure traffic of trains and for effective operation of the companies within the Group.

The LTG data network upgrade is expected to make it even more secure, reliable, easier to maintain and manage. It will also significantly increase data transmission speed.