Minister of Transport Marius Skoudis asserts that the future planned journey between Vilnius and Tallinn should take place without changing to another train. According to him, the ministers of the Baltic countries are communicating on this issue, but everything will depend on the railway capacity and the agreement between Latvians and Estonians.
"That issue is constantly being discussed, we started with Riga, the goal is to unite Tallinn. Now those issues are not decided by the ministers, at a lower level. But we among the Baltic countries, the three ministers, have fairly regular meetings, regardless of where we go," M. Skuodis said on Wednesday before the Government meeting.
"The final goal (the route to Tallinn without transfers - ELTA) is still before Rail Baltica." Everything will depend on the agreement of the Latvians and Estonians and the capacity of the railways themselves to allocate such a train, it would take more than one. Naturally, the ultimate goal is a single route and not just one train a day," he emphasized.
The minister said that in the remote meeting with Estonian Climate Minister Kristen Michal and Latvian Transport Minister Kaspars Briškens on Wednesday, the transportation of Russian grain in transit through the Baltic countries will be discussed.
"We have many questions, from the implementation of sanctions to joint projects. The meeting is organized on the initiative of the Latvian minister, I would not like to communicate on specific matters until we have agreed," said the politician.
"There is a very specific issue, the transportation of Russian grain in transit through the Baltic countries. In Lithuania, this is not a significant issue, the volume is very small, but in Latvia it's a big problem," he explained.
At the end of last year, the first journey of the Vilnius-Riga train route started. Direct trains run daily - LTG group passenger transport company "LTG Link" from Vilnius invites you to leave in the mornings, and from Riga - in the afternoons of every day. The train journey between the two capitals takes about 4 hours. 15 minutes
M. Skuodis has testified to Eltai that this year there is a possibility that Latvians and Estonians will agree on a train route between Tallinn and Riga, but it is not yet completely clear when it will be possible to reach the capital of Estonia from Vilnius in this way.
Ignas Dobrovolskas (ELTA)