30.05.2023
At its meeting yesterday, the Pärnu City Government decided to issue a building permit for Rail Baltic's Pärnu International Passenger Terminal.
"We have taken another step to ensure that Pärnu has fast connections to the capital and the rest of the world. The newly issued building permit allows us to start construction work on the new Pärnu railway terminal, from which in a few years it should be possible to travel to Tallinn in 40 minutes and to the Latvian capital Riga in one hour. Pärnu will regain the connections with Tallinn and Riga that were once lost, and this will be in a completely different quality: the speeds on the new and modern European-wide railway are many times higher than on the slow railway built in the middle of the last century and now closed," said the Mayor of Pärnu Romek Kosenkranius.
The mayor added that construction of the passenger terminal access road has already begun this year, and by the end of the year, the detailed plan for the new Rail Baltic Pärnu freight terminal in the Niidu Street area should be ready as part of Rail Baltica. “We will do our utmost to ensure that the construction work of Rail Baltic proceeds smoothly and that Pärnu will have a high-speed rail connection to Tallinn and other European capitals by the end of this decade at the latest,” Kosenkranius noted.
A building permit was issued for the terminal building and its surrounding outdoor areas, parking lots, access road, and utility networks. Today, construction of the first stage of the Pärnu passenger terminal access road is already underway on the Lao Street T2 property. The construction of an electricity connection is also planned in the near future.
The Chairman of the Board of Rail Baltic Estonia, which is leading the development of the Estonian part of Rail Baltica Anvar SalometsAccording to the company, preparations for the construction of the Pärnu terminal have been underway for a long time, and the issuance of a building permit will also allow the construction procurement to be announced in 2024. The estimated construction cost of the terminal and related infrastructure could reach 45 million euros.
The terminal building is designed above the railway and waiting platforms and is connected by galleries, which provide passengers with both excellent views and comfort in bad weather conditions. The building has solved the classic terminal usage needs such as waiting rooms, ticket office and catering. The terminal is planned to have a waiting room with 90 seats, as well as a café, information points and other rooms necessary for passenger service. The roads, squares and greenery in the immediate vicinity of the terminal occupy an average area of 6 hectares.
The passenger terminal area also includes stops for various buses, bicycle parking, taxi ranks, a parking lot for 150 passenger cars, as well as places with charging capacity for electric cars and connections for light traffic.
The Rail Baltica international passenger terminal will be located approximately 4 km from the centre of Pärnu in the Papiniidu area, between Via Baltica and the Pärnu River. The architectural concept of the passenger terminal was the result of an international architectural competition, within which 31 works were submitted. The architectural competition was won by the concept design Water Strider, authored by Indrek Allmann, Jaan Jagomägi, Gunnar Kurusk, Tanno Tammesson and Holden Vides from Arhitektuuribüroo Pluss OÜ. The design work was also carried out by Arhitektuuribüroo Pluss OÜ.
Visuals of the Pärnu passenger terminal
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