[01] Lembo Tanning, Marcelius Trade Limited Liability Company, Tallinn, Estonia.

The higher cost of transport is energy, fuel. Which mode of transport is more efficient for freight? When the cars are so easy to measure, then rail transport is much more complicated. Here is the deciding distance and also time, must be taken into account also the weight and dimensions of the goods, the location of the sender and the receiver. The decisive factor, however, is still money, the total expenditure. How is it better to transport goods from the Baltics to Western Europe, either by car or by train? Regarding the European Union's major financing opportunities, there is a chance to build a railway motorway. Next, we're doing SWOT analysis for railway key indicators, while also taking into account subjective factors. The goal of the publication is to analyse the Baltic countries rail freight transport key indicators, but also the contradictions of the Rail Baltica (RB) project. Consequently, we do a SWOT analysis of the RB. In recent years, volumes of rail freight traffic have shrunk considerably, especially in Latvia and Estonia. The trend in Europe is that rail freight is reduced almost everywhere. It should also, in the context of the UK leaving the EU from the EU budget is significantly reduced, which was to be the majority of the RB construction expenses. Hence the problem of whether it is a large project is economically viable at all, not to mention the environmental damage and social sphere. The RB is not an economically and financially reasonable project, but only a political decision.

Energy Efficiency, SWOT Analysis for Railway, Goods Transport, Baltic States, Economy, Rail Baltica

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