Lithuanian Transport Minister says Poland's investment in Rail Baltica too slow

"Poland promised to upgrade the section between the Lithuanian-Polish border to Bialystok. We are not satisfied with the pace. They have not made the investments they had to," he told the Lithuanian Radio.

Masiulis said that the railway section in Poland is usable, but the speed of trains is very limited due to the old infrastructure.

The minister said that the section from the Lithuanian-Polish border to Kaunas will cost about 800 million litas (EUR 232 mln), with the EU to provide around 60 percent of the project cost and Lithuania to contribute the rest. However, talks are underway to increase the EU's share of the financing to 85 percent in the future.

"Right now, discussions are ongoing in the European Union on the next financial perspective, and Lithuania seeks 85 percent financing for the Rail Baltica project, because we perfectly understand that it is too heavy a burden for the states to finance such an enormous project on their own," he said.

The European Commission's coordinator for Rail Baltica, Pavel Telicka, has said that Brussels will step up pressure on Poland to accelerate the pace of carrying out the railway project.

Rail Baltica would link Poland to Finland via three Baltic countries. The total length of the railway in Lithuania is 335 kilometers and the total estimated value is about 1.9 billion litas (EUR 550m).

Lithuania's railways were built to the Russian gauge of 1,520 millimeters, whereas the European gauge is narrower, of 1,435 millimeters.