Rīgas Vagonbūves Rūpnīca (RVR) was a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n rail and tram vehicle manufacturer, most notable for its

multiple unit A multiple-unit train (or multiple unit (MU)) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more Coach (rail), carriages joined, and where one or more of the carriages have the means of propulsion built in. By contrast, a locomotive-hauled ...

trains and

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

vehicles used throughout the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and its successor states. It has been insolvent and non-operational since 2017.

History

The original works were founded in 1895 by the businessman Oscar Freywirth under the name Fēnikss. In 1936, Fenikss was reorganised into Joint Stock Company Vairogs, which later manufactured

Ford-Vairogs Ford-Vairogs ("Vairogs" meaning "Shield") (earlier called "Fenikss") was the name of a car factory in Riga, Latvia, that produced license-built Ford Motor Company, Ford cars between September 1937 and 1940 when it was expropriated as the proper ...

automobiles under licence.Severstallat
/ref> Expropriated by the state following the takeover of Latvia by the

and renamed RVR, it became for many years the largest producer of

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

and diesel trains in the USSR and also produced

tramcars A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

. Its best known products are the ER1, ER2, ER7, ER9 and ER31 electric

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

s, DR1, DR1A and DR1P diesel trains, many of which are still in service today. Between 1973 and 1988 it built the high-speed ER200

. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the

Comecon The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, often abbreviated as Comecon ( ) or CMEA, was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc#List of states, Easter ...

, the factory ceased operations in 1996 and was declared bankrupt in 1998. Privatized in two parts, one was bought by Severstal, a company controlled by Russian oligarch Alexey Mordashov. In 2001 the factory was bought by a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

and new diesel units were built for Belarusian Railways from 2005 to 2008. Other orders were primarily for the refurbishment of the units it had previously manufactured. After its ownership structure changed several times it entered insolvency in 2017, following a dearth of orders for new vehicles for several years and several failed attempts at partnerships with other rail manufacturers.

Products

Trains

*AR-1 first produced 1969 *AR-2 first produced 1997 *DR-1 / DR-1P / DR-1A / DR-1B beginning in 1963 *ER-1 first produced 1957 *ER-2 / ER-2R / ER-2T beginning in 1962 *ER-3 produced 1963 *ER-6 prototype only in 1965 *ER-7 first produced 1957 *ER-9 / ER-9P / ER-9M / ER-9E / ER-9ET / ER-9T first produced 1962 *ER-10 first produced 1960 *ER-11 produced 1965 *ER-12 first produced 1976 *Er-200 first produced 1974

Trams

From 1923 to 1930 the factory produced some 40 tram cars for Riga. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, in 1949 the factory started producing the MTV-82 tram. Between 1960 and 1989 more than 6000 RVR-6 tram cars were built.

Current operators

Many RVR trains built during the Soviet period are still in active service across the former

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Current operators are shown below. Very few, if any, RVR tramcars are still in operation, with most cities of the former USSR favouring tramcars built by ČKD Tatra.

References

External links

Official website of RVR
{{Authority control 1895 establishments in the Russian Empire Companies based in Riga Manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union Rolling stock manufacturers of Latvia Tram manufacturers Companies nationalised by the Soviet Union Latvian brands Ministry of Heavy and Transport Machine-Building (Soviet Union) Electric vehicle manufacturers of Latvia