Work starts on Rail Baltica’s Estonian terminus
Work has started on the Ülemiste Passenger Terminal in Tallinn, Estonia, set to be the northern terminus of the Rail Baltica corridor.
Designed by Estonia’s Esplan and the UK’s Zaha Hadid Architects, the terminal will link up with bus, tram, rail and cycle networks, and is linked to Tallinn airport and the city’s districts.
Crews are using a phased approach to let trains keep running during construction.
Rail Baltica is an 870km railway linking Tallinn in the north down through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to Poland, where it will integrate with the European rail network.
Costed so far at €5.8bn and majority-funded by the EU, it will carry passengers at 249km/h and freight at 120km/h.
Magda Kopczynska, the European Commission’s directorate-general for mobility, said: “The Baltic States must be connected to the European rail network, both in order to ensure the security of supply chains, comfortable travel, economic development and, last but not least, our common European security.”
