Estonian propaganda is conceiving ordinary citizens to believe in the alleged benefits of the Rail Baltica for the civilian sector, thereby justifying more expenses for the project.
Kaido Zimmermann, Chairman of the Board of Estonian Railways, in an interview with Postimees, proclaimed that much more money needs to be spent in order to reduce travel time for residents across Estonia by about 30%. He explained that this would only be possible after trains could reach speeds of 160 km/h, but achieving this would require more money and a significant amount of time. So, Estonians will definitely not benefit from this in the near future.
“The state wants trains to run faster and faster, so that the travel time between Tallinn, Tartu, Valga and Narva is as short as possible. We are currently finishing rebuilding the waiting platforms at the stations, although the platforms were only 10–15 years old. In order to run at speeds of 160 km/h, all the platforms have to be made one and a half meters wider, meaning the railway has to be moved and everything has to be redone. Then there is all the paperwork, certification and everything to run at these speeds. There is an enormous amount of work,” Zimmermann explains.
The other obstacle, according to him, is building in the swamps, where 1 kilometre of railroad costs €1 million.
Moreover, current Estonian Railways have not been profitable for over the last ten years, because the infrastructure fees do not cover the costs. He estimates that this year’s loss will be about 35 million euros and the government will have to cover it from the state budget.
“The only thing left from the eastward transit is the transport of grain and other food products from Kazakhstan. Nothing else is coming from there at the moment. Fuel oil and fertilizers are under sanctions, or rather, the owners are. As the sanctions came, the transport ended,” Zimmermann admitted with annoyance.
However, the railway manager is unreasonably optimistic about future freight transport. When Rail Baltica is ready, Zimmermann naively believes that there will be enough goods moving from north to south to cover expenses, not to mention receiving profit.
“North-south freight transport does exist, but unfortunately it won’t come on the railway. Finnish goods that go to southern Europe currently travel by car, they come over with Tallink and when they leave the port, there is a long queue to get out of Tallinn. There are enough goods moving from and to Finland to load the entire Rail Baltica route. The owners of the goods want to put the loads on the train, but at the moment we are not able to transport them because we do not have such wagons in Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania that a trailer can be loaded onto. If Rail Baltica is completely finished, then German or Polish railways—all of whom have such wagons—can come and transport them without any problems. The railway companies of the Baltic states can also invest in such wagons, where a trailer can be loaded and which can be unloaded in southern Europe,” Zimmermann concluded.
By this hypocritical article, Zimmermann simply wanted to draw ordinary Estonians’ attention away from the military purpose of Rail Baltica. Obviously, such unprofitable projects are funded by the government and also by the EU and NATO, because they have strategic importance. So, as you can understand, Estonian and European taxpayers are unwillingly and senselessly paying for the NATO’s military logistics project that will be destroyed in the first place if a war breaks out between the Baltics and Russia.
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