LATVIA – Latvian Railway (15/11/2022)
On 15 November, the government approved the compensation of EUR 7.9 million to “Latvijas dzelzceļš” (LDz) for maintenance of the state public railway infrastructure and its use for passenger railway transportation. The funding was allocated from the state budget programme «Contingency Funds».
According to the Ministry of Transport (15/11/2022), the legal and regulatory framework provides funding in the state budget to cover the costs of the railway infrastructure operator related to passenger transport. However, the cost of maintenance and use of public rail infrastructure is higher than the budgeted funding, so each year the government decides on the allocation of funding during the current year, including contingency funds.
Also in 2022 the necessary state funding is not planned to cover the costs in full, and additional funds must be allocated to GAS «Latvijas dzelzceļš».
The state budget allocated 30.8 million euros in 2022 and the total cost of public transport on the railway is 38.1 million euros, which means that additional 7.9 million euros will be required to ensure the service. The allocated funds will cover the costs of track maintenance, maintenance of electric power supply devices and automatic traffic control systems, maintenance of property management, organisation of train traffic, and railway management, infrastructure and development of public railway infrastructure.
