Rail Baltica joint venture RB Rail AS has announced that three international candidates have qualified for the second stage of the Rail Baltica energy subsystem design and construction procurement.
This is considered as the largest railway cross-border electrification project in Europe since the subsystem will be deployed in a consolidated way across all 870km mainline from Tallinn to the Lithuania-Poland border and from Kaunas to Vilnius.
“COBELEC Rail Baltica” (partnership formed by Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios S.A. and Elecnor Servicios y Proyectos S.A.U.) from Spain, “ALSTOM-BMGS-GE-Torpol” (partnership formed by “BMGS” AS, “Bombardier Transportation Baltics” SIA, ALSTOM Transport SA, GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS, TORPOL S.A.) from Latvia, France and Poland, and “STC Baltic Electrification” (partnership formed by COLAS RAIL AS, Siemens Mobility GmbH, Siemens Mobility Oy Latvijas filiāle, TSO SAS) from France, Germany and Latvia are qualified for the second stage of the tender, which is planned to commence in the following months with an aim to sign the contract by the end of 2023.
Early last year, RB Rail AS selected an engineering service (ENE Engineer). The association of DB Engineering & Consulting GmbH; IDOM Consulting, Engineering, Architecture, S.A.U.; Italferr S.p.A. was announced as the winner in an international tender, carried out by RB Rail AS.
Crucial components of the energy subsystem include high voltage connection points to link traction power substations to the public high voltage electrical grids, traction power substations, overhead contact system, energy control command system, and other components that are directly connected to the energy subsystem.
European Union will co-finance up to 85 per cent of the total eligible costs through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) with the remaining financing granted by the three Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
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