Name: How a $27 Billion Baltic Railway Will Fortify NATO Against Russia
Uploaded: 2025-05-13T04:00:00Z
Duration: 6 min 9 s
Description: The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have better rail connections to Russia than the rest of Europe. Here’s how a new, strategic railway project is addressing NATO concerns about Russian aggression in Europe.

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The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have better rail connections to Russia than the rest of Europe. Here’s how a new, strategic railway project is addressing NATO concerns about Russian aggression in Europe. Photo Illustration: Rail Baltica

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250512/b761ebf8-a0b8-479b-8022-1768f0253fac/3/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have better rail connections to Russia than the rest of Europe. Here’s how a new, strategic railway project is addressing NATO concerns about Russian aggression in Europe.

How a $27 Billion Baltic Railway Will Fortify NATO Against Russia

Narrator: The EU and NATO have a problem. Three of the Baltic member states have better rail connections with Russia than the rest of Europe. The former Soviet country still use the five foot wide Russian rail gauge, which is about three and a half inches wider than Europe's standard gauge, meaning passengers and cargo have to change trains when traveling into the region. In the event of a military conflict with Russia, this would potentially become a critical choke point for NATO troops.

We all agree in NATO that Russia is the long-term threat to NATO territory

Narrator: At a cost of $27 billion, the Rail Baltica project aims to tackle NATO security fears head on.

Narrator: On the maintenance of supplies depends the maintenance of the fight.

Narrator: Historically, railways have been a critical element of Russia's warfare. Following the annexation of Crimea in 2014, one of Moscow's top priorities was to build a rail bridge linking the peninsula to Russia. And during its deadly invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow took full advantage of the rail links into the country, which like Russia and the Baltics, has the same wide gauge tracks.

If you have an interoperable interconnections railway gauge, this makes it easier to bring those troops even deeper into those territories where they want to be.

Narrator: As Russia's war on Ukraine rages on and Moscow expands its military bases near the EU border, building a direct rail connection into the Baltics has become one of the blocks key security projects. The idea for a European standard rail gauge in the Baltics has been around since the early nineties, when Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania gained independence from the USSR.

The current Baltic railway network was designed as an integral part of the vast railway network of the Soviet Union. East, West interconnections were important because they connected Russian cities with the Baltic ports of Klaipeda in Lithuania, Riga in Latvia, and Tallinn in Estonia. The North South interconnection was not so much developed, and this is where we come to a problem now, because that is the route that connects them with their NATO and EU allies.

Narrator: Today, this causes significant delays for passengers and up to eight hours for cargo to be transferred from one train to another at the border between Poland and Lithuania. This bottleneck could become a major vulnerability in the event of a military conflict, because the same track gauge that hinders the movements of NATO forces could offer Russian troops and supply trains the ability to move quickly and directly into the heart of the Baltics, all of which makes Rail Baltica, a project to build a 540 mile long high speed rail line, incredibly urgent. Originally launched in 2014, in a bid to save time and billions of dollars on the transfer of goods and passengers, the project suddenly has a new purpose.

This is also a lesson from Ukraine that you have these two track movements that you have to bring military supplies and military personal of your allies into those countries. And at the same time, you have huge masses of people trying to leave the country.

Narrator: Official estimates Project Rail Baltica will be able to replace a four mile long military convoy with a single 40 wagon train, and in the event of armed conflicts, up to 143,000 people could be evacuated from the Baltic capitals to Poland in one day. The original project included new train stations, freight terminals, and links to airports and seaports in the region as part of the Greater North Sea Baltic corridor. But development stalled during the pandemic and bureaucratic challenges, such as delayed designs, have pushed Rail Baltica at least five years behind the initial completion deadline of the end of 2025.

There are so many actors in this project, which also makes it difficult to accommodate all the different opinions about the route, about how it has to be managed, about where those finances have to come from.

Narrator: Over a decade, mounting costs have seen developers estimates increase fourfold. To manage these challenges, the Baltic states have decided to split the project into two phases. The first costing $17 billion will see a single track rather than the original double laid by 2030, and focus on the most important train stops. The second track and additional train stations are to be completed as part of a second phase, but no specific completion date has been set.

Having a single line track is better than having none. I think we should just concentrate now on finishing this one single line in order to have this key fundamental interconnection.

Narrator: But securing financing is a major challenge, even just for the first phase. Rail Baltica representatives say they have already received almost four and a half billion dollars, 85% of which comes from the EU, but with the block's next financial period due to start in 2028, the project will have to reapply for funding. Rail Baltica hopes to secure another four and a half billion dollars, but this would still leave an $8 billion funding gap. While the project's representatives said they were exploring alternative funding strategies, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are still facing a multi-billion dollar challenge. But Russia's war in Ukraine has turned this new railway project into a critical lifeline for the region and Europe.

It is important now to perceive this project not only in terms of defense, but first of all in terms of deterrence as well, sending a message to our adversaries that we are thinking of all the important aspects in defense, including logistics and military mobility.