INFRASTRUCTURE manager Estonian Railways (ER) has reported a net loss of €30.7m in 2024, with its financial performance expected to continue deteriorating until at least 2030, due in part to the suspension of transit freight traffic between Russia and Europe.
According to the Climate Ministry, this year ER is forecast to make a loss of €35m, rising to €38m in 2027 and €39m in 2028. This follows a trend that has seen the annual net loss rise continuously since 2016 when it stood at €5m.
According to Ain Tatter, head of the ministry’s road and railway department, breakeven will require freight traffic on the Estonian national network to reach 20-25 million tonnes a year, “an unreachable figure” following the end of oil traffic moving in transit from Russia to Europe.
Total freight traffic on ER was only 3 million tonnes in 2024. At its peak in the 2000s, this figure was close to 40 million tonnes, the majority of which was transit traffic between Russia and the European Union (EU).
Tatter says that Estonia must accept the new reality that its national railway network will require taxpayer support in order to be self-sustaining. He notes that, on average, only 20% to 30% of infrastructure costs in the EU are met by track access charges, the remainder being provided by the state.
An ER spokesperson confirmed that the scale of the loss at the infrastructure manager is directly related to the fall in freight traffic. This has been worsened in recent years by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently by economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU.
Despite this, the spokesperson said, ER is delivering projects aimed at improving service quality, sustainability and safety, all of which require substantial investment.
