Current plans call for a high-speed Rail Baltica that will connect the Latvian capital
Riga with
Pärnu and
Tallinn to the north and with
Kaunas and
Warsaw to the south. Reports in March 2011 indicate plans are moving towards a standard gauge railway.[1]
The project will be financed by the budget of Latvia (50%) and by the
European Union TEN-T budget, Structural and Cohesion Funds provided to the EU New Member States.[2]
Railways currently have a low number of passengers along the north-south route in Latvia. If the north-south going railways are converted to standard gauge, the west-east railways are still not likely to be converted, since they are used for freight and passenger trains to
Russia and
Belarus.
There is also a consideration to build a new west-east high-speed railway Riga–Moscow.[3]