As such, it comes as no surprise that there has lately been increased attention to this mode of transport in Europe.
England launched constructions of a railway line, which will allow to reach speeds of up to 382 km/h and is to receive 120 billion euro in funding. In Germany, where people travel by rail 10 times (!) more than we do, rail infrastructure development investment has doubled for the coming years, planned to reach 8 billion euro. Our neighbours in Latvia, who travel by rail six times more often than Lithuanians, are increasing the capacities and speeds of this mode of transportation by another fifth.
Based on rail passenger travel, Lithuania is last among EU countries. According to Eurostat data, rail travel only comprises 0.8% of the travelling done in the country. In our country, there is more focus on freight transportation and not that of passengers. Lithuanian Railways, which is working under monopoly conditions, creates peculiar situations: having laid down a new track, financed by the EU, from the Polish border to Kaunas, it is now considering dismantling it and building a new one in parallel that would be suitable for travel at normal European speeds.
In order to lift the monopoly and see progress in rail travel, it is necessary to plan a new rapid passenger rail transport line from Pilaitė to Karmėlava Airport, including it in the Rail Baltica line. Similar connections with Rail Baltica are already planned by Riga and Tallinn.
The planning, construction and oversight of the new rail line must be trusted to a newly established company, which would also include private capital contributions.
Only with the emergence of at least one more player in the market would peculiarities cease, rail matters improve, speeds increase. Only then could we perhaps catch up to Europe.
