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Two teenage farmers, Andres and Martin (both 13) from Lepiku and Raudsepa farms, frown as they weigh into older folks discussions: they would not like Rail Baltic – planned to connect Tallinn with Berlin in 10 years’ time – depriving them of lands to cultivate.
The ten farmsteads and their 50-some inhabitants of Valtu-Nurme, of Rapla County, joined by a dozen of neighbouring villages, are experiencing anxiety amid the best haymaking season, gathering for meetings – in order to have their arguments ready, as according to a line on a hypothetical map, Kehtna and Kaerepere commune villages may end up split in two by a 350 metres wide express railway zone.
With pride, Valtu-Nurme village elder Helen Link shows off the fresh and colourful kindergarten, erected in nearby Kaerepere small town a year ago. All 60 places are filled up, she personally contributing two toddlers.
The other two kids of Ms Link, a veterinarian, attend a 120-kid basic school – growing in recent years by a couple of dozen pupils – in that same town. Taking the two kilometre trip by bikes or on skis.
Train through farms
Should the Estonia-Europe railway with wagons speeding at 240 km/h soon pass through the village, the idyllic Bullerby-like Valtu-Nurme kids could no longer take the dusty track to school.
«The railway must come, but not in an arbitrary place, with someone just drawing a line at his desk... cutting ten villages in half,» says Rain, representing the age-old Raudsepa farmstead.
The Valtu-Nurme folks have not failed to spot the irony of all the talk on Estonians getting the wondrous chance to travel straight to Berlin – neglecting to mention carriage of goods, the main business.
«Yeah, why not take the Berlin trip, just for once,» smiles the Lepiku farmwife Piret Pärnamägi.
Rain Raudsepa from the farm of the same name jukes that it will be fun indeed to try out the railway, whizzing through their fields behind a Chinese Wall type contraption.
«We will try to deal wisely, not desiring to push the tracks over to our neighbours,» assures Ms Link the village elder. She is worried, still, of being misunderstood by the public at large. Over the Internet, the young, educated and well-to-do Valtu-Nurme folks have been saddened to read that supposedly they resist the railway, as it would hinder them to go handing in the empty booze bottles and getting new ones.
«All of us work, we have no families on social security,» the farmwives say in chorus. They all do the farmers’ work, raise kids – some two, some four – and do other jobs outside of home, as education allows: there are the veterinarians, the teachers and doers of other trades.
«Some feat – driving a train straight through a farm!» vents the Raudsepa farmer.
In his farm, a new shed for 500 sheep has recently been erected; stumps are vigorously being uprooted on the farm’s forest lands, to win fresh pasture for the lambs.
Sheep raising is the idea of the 13-years-old Martin – and his daily job. Mother Terje Raudsepa is proud to announce that the flock, currently at 27 sheep, is cared for by the boy alone.
«All I had to do was build the sheep shed,» laughs Rain, the father.
The neighbouring Lepiku farm has 165 of cattle, mostly grazing outside in summers. Should the railway come where currently planned, it would separate the neighbours and cut the 70 hectares Lepiku land into two.
That would be the end of current volume of cattle – to say nothing of increase. However, business plans have been drawn long-term, the cow house getting another addition just this winter.
«One couldn’t get the cows to the pasture, over a railway or even a big highway; instead of the two kilometre trip to the hayfield, we would have to take a journey of dozens of kilometres,» reckons farmer Kaupo Kauri.
To which, the 13-years-old Andres adds: «When planning, they first considered the Natura areas – not where the people live!»
Designing of Rail Baltica was launched, in earnest, this May, as Ministry of Economic Affairs entered into contract with planners. By Midsummer Day, already, initial maps were ready, complete with ideas for lines.
Need for speed
The Kehtna commune Valtu-Nurme folks learned of the railway-line-to-be, aiming at mid-village, on June 27th, as it was first presented at Rapla County Government. They were troubled by the speed developed by planners at Tallinn offices, in the middle of summer and its vacations – and the way opinions have been asked from Kehtna commune centre, for instance, with a couple of days’ deadline.
The country folks now fear that ere they are able to present their views, decisions will be taken in the capital. To date, it has been the very Valtu-Nurme and the dozen-or-so neighbouring villages that have been the first in Harju, Rapla and Pärnu Counties to have their loud say in the decade-long railway project.
«This is a region that stands out; they do not just talk, they do deeds – they were not [only] awakened by the possibility of a railway,» says Hans-Jürgen Schumann, planning and building specialist in Kehtna commune government. «This is an area of dense population, remarkably developed.»
For Estonia, Kehtna commune with its 4,700 inhabitants on some 51,000 hectares is a large local government; according to Mr Schumann, the dwellers thereof understand that, with high probability, the railway will touch half of their 50 villages.
In their speedily delivered answers – questions posed on Thursday, answers required by Monday – the county government substantiated where, considering people’s wellbeing, it would be least painful to pass through with the railway.
«We suggested that it would be least painful to have the new line parallel with the current railway,» said Mr Schumann, who is responsible to the railway topic as others are on vacations.
Today, en extraordinary Kehtna county council meeting will be held, in order to study the Rail Baltica plans.
Mr Schumann acknowledged that the planners are not expecting a wider discussion as yet, as things are still changing daily.
«But this is high time to remove all lines from the maps which just won’t do, leaving those [lines] which would harm the local life as little as possible, avoiding future conflicts,» he is convinced.
«We have many strong agricultural producers with over thousands cattle in their farms; in Kehtna, sperm is produced for all cattle in Estonia – all this needs to be maintained,» he added.
In the specialist’s opinion, the Rail Baltica project seems to be in a huge hurry.
«In two years they want to get the plan ready, to het the EU money; here every day counts,» said the man. «We are not some kind of bigots, not to allow the tracks to our territory at all – we do have a railway already, and more may come.»
Project and building timeline
• In May 2013, Rail Baltica’s Estonian part’s project designing commenced, executed by Hendrikson & KO OÜ, Reaalprojekt OÜ, EA Reng AS, Kelprojektas, and WSP.
• By September 2013, up to five possible lines will be selected.
• In September-October of 2013, the initial public presentation is planned; thereafter the designing continues, with minimum two more public disclosure periods included.
• By end of 2015, technical projects must be completed, and Estonia with the other four states shall file an application to European Commission for Rail Baltica to be financially supported by 70-80 per cent.
• In 2017 or 2018, railway begins to be built.
• By end of 2023, Rail Baltica is to be completed.
Rail Baltica in numbers
• Rail Baltic is a joint project of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.
• One kilometre of railway costs €4-5m, plus VAT.
• All in all, Rail Baltica costs €3.6bn, Estonia’s share being about €1bn.
• Rail Baltica starts at Muuga Harbour and leads into Poland. In Estonia, passenger trains stop in Tallinn and Pärnu.
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