Rail Baltica electrification deal
Rail Baltica has signed Europe’s largest railway electrification contract, worth EUR 1.7 billion, with the Cobelec consortium of Grupo Cobra and Grupo Elecnor. The agreement, formalised in Vilnius on 15 September, covers the electrification of 870 km of lines and more than 2,400 km of tracks using 2x25 kV technology and static frequency converters powered by 10 substations. The project will link Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, to the TEN-T core network by 2030.
Italferr will supervise signalling systems and energy subsystems, as well as manage works on Latvia’s 230 km double-track high-speed line. According to the company Rail Baltica is one of Europe’s most ambitious cross-border projects, aiming to improve sustainability, efficiency and interoperability. Around EUR 7.1 billion in savings are acpected from reduced heavy road freight traffic. (js)