Opinion: Estonia's Tartu-Riga rail line is a costly rush job

Journalist Vambola Paavo argues that the newly opened Tartu-Riga cross-border rail link is a poorly planned and heavily subsidised service that defies European norms. He contends that running international trains as a domestic service at reduced fares is an expensive mistake Estonia can ill afford during a budget deficit.

The Tartu-Riga rail connection, opened three months ago, has quickly become a symbol of what journalist Vambola Paavo calls governmental overreach — a service born out of political haste and sustained only by generous subsidies that Estonia's strained public finances can barely support.

Across Europe, cross-border rail services are not subsidised in the way Estonia has chosen to operate this line. In virtually every other European country, passengers travelling internationally by train pay international fares, even when part of the journey falls within their home country's borders. Estonia, Paavo argues, is swimming against the current by offering domestic pricing on what is, in essence, an international service.

## A costly precedent from Soviet times

The irony, Paavo notes, is that even during the Soviet era, express trains running between union republics charged higher fares for the domestic segments within Estonia. What was considered self-evident under Soviet planning is now being discarded in favour of a politically convenient but fiscally questionable model.

With Estonia currently running a budget deficit, the timing of this so-called "money shower" could hardly be worse. Only a wealthy nation, Paavo writes, can afford to pour public funds into subsidising cross-border rail at reduced ticket prices — and Estonia, by any honest measure, does not currently qualify as one.

## Haste makes waste on the rails

The Tartu-Riga line, in Paavo's assessment, is less a triumph of Baltic connectivity and more a case study in what happens when political ambition outpaces sound planning. Three months in, the service stands as a cautionary tale: rushed into operation, propped up by subsidies, and setting a precedent that will be difficult and expensive to reverse.