Vilnius–Tartu with one transfer? Estonians revealed when they would like to launch the expected train route | Business

As we already wrote, according to the original plan, the Tartu-Riga train route was supposed to start in October being postponed to a later date, as the Estonian carrier did not have time to certify its trains to Latvian Railways.

At the moment, the fundamental question remains – whether the Estonian government will decide to finance the launch of this line. One train per day, which would come to Riga in the evening and return to Tartu in the morning, would need about 1 million. state subsidies per year, indicates err.ee.

If a positive decision is made, the Estonian passenger train company “Elron” expects that trains between Tartu and Riga will start running this spring, writes err.ee.

Although the new “Elron” trains arrived in Estonia a dozen years ago precisely through Latvia, it turned out that, despite this, an official confirmation is needed that Estonian trains are suitable for running on Latvian railways.

“The initial information was that we can handle the so-called additional certification procedure, but during that time it turned out that we have to do a completely new certification in order for the trains to run in Latvia,” – err.ee quotes Elron’s board chairman Lauri Betlem.

Currently, both “Elron” and “Viv” trains of the Latvian passenger transport company stop in the border town of Valga. In the course of the year, the possibility was considered that passengers arriving from Tartu could change trains in Valga and take a Latvian train to Riga.

Elron plans to make it the Tallinn-Tartu-Valga extension line. “This train, which is currently spending the night in Valga, will continue to Riga in the evening, spend the night there and return in the morning,” said L. Betlem.

Err.ee The mayor of the city of Tartu, quoted in the publication, praised the two latest international “LTG” routes:

“The Warsaw-Vilnius train started very well. The mayor of Riga is very happy with the Vilnius-Riga train, he says that he has not seen so many Lithuanian tourists for a long time. The Riga-Tartu-Tallinn train would probably have the same effect on the communication and tourism development of our two neighboring countries,” said Tartu Mayor Urmas Klaas.

In November of last year, Estonian Climate Minister Kristen Michals told the media that while planning the Tartu-Riga route, at the same time, discussions were held with the representatives of Lithuania and Latvia about the route from Vilnius to Tallinn, extending the already existing Vilnius-Riga route served by LTG Link.

At the end of this year, the Minister of Transport of Lithuania, Marius Skuodis, told the media that the countries have the goal of connecting the three capitals of the Baltic states with one route even before the completion of Rail Baltica.

“There are already negotiations on the connection between Riga and Tartu, and from Tartu to Tallinn we have that (railway) connection. If there is a connection between Riga and Tartu, I think we will definitely be able to adjust the schedules (to the Vilnius-Riga route)”, said the Minister of Transport at that time.

Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia with a population of about 100,000. people. The largest and oldest university in the country is located in the city – the University of Tartu.