Rail transport in Latvia is done on

Russian gauge Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: * Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries * Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...

. The main

railway company A railway company is a company within the rail industry. It can be a manufacturing firm or an rail transport operations, operator. Some railway companies operate both the trains and the track, while, particularly in the European Union, operation ...

is the state-owned Latvijas dzelzceļš (LDz), with its subsidiary

Pasažieru vilciens Pasažieru vilciens ("Passenger train", abbreviated: PV) is the only passenger-carrying railway company in Latvia, operating both electric locomotive, electric and diesel trains on various lines throughout the country. It was formed in November 20 ...

(PV) providing passenger services. Historically Latvia had lot of different rail gauges, most notably standard gauge and

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

. These were gradually replaced by the Russian gauge after the

Soviet occupation of the Baltic states The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states covers the period from the Soviet–Baltic mutual assistance pacts in 1939, to their invasion and annexation in 1940, to the mass deportations of 1941. In September and October 1939 the Soviet governme ...

. The

Rail Baltica Rail Baltica (also known as Rail Baltic in Estonia) is a high-speed railway under construction between Warsaw, Poland and Tallinn, Estonia, with further connections to Finland via Baltic Sea cruiseferries or the proposed Helsinki–Tallinn Tunn ...

project aims to connect Latvia and the other Baltic states to the European standard gauge by approximately 2030. Ten regional stations are planned in the section from

Bauska Bauska () is a town in Bauska Municipality, in the Zemgale region of southern Latvia. Bauska is located from the Latvian capital Riga, 62 km (38.5 mi) from Jelgava and from the Lithuanian border on the busy European route E67. The to ...

Salacgrīva Salacgrīva () is a town in Salacgrīva Municipality in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. The centre of the area surrounding Salacgrīva is the mouth of Salaca River, and the town's name literally means "Mouth of Salaca" in Latvian. It is famous for ...

. Although PV has been a monopolist in passenger train, in February 2022 the Road Transport Administration of the Ministry of Transport of Latvia announced the first market survey on potential private rail passenger service providers.

Rail links to adjacent countries

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

) – yes *( Lithuania) – no

References

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*
New direct train from Kyiv to Latvia

"Latvia registered the largest increase with +368.9 %.."
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rail Transport In Latvia

Rail links to adjacent countries

See also

References

External links