Rail transport in Latvia-The Daily Ledger

Rail transport in Latvia is done on Russian gauge. The main railway company is the state-owned Latvijas dzelzceļš (LDz), with its subsidiary Pasažieru vilciens (PV) providing passenger services.

Historically Latvia had lot of different rail gauges, most notably standard gauge and narrow gauge. These were gradually replaced by the Russian gauge after the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states.

Rail transport in Latvia

The Rail Baltica 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 to Salacgrīva.

Rail transport in Latvia

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 transport in Latvia

Future expansion

Rail Baltica is an ongoing greenfield railway infrastructure project which will link all Baltic States, including Latvia, Poland and, eventually, Finland. Being a part of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), it is one of the priority projects of the European Union. It will introduce standard-gauge high-speed rail with an operating speed of 249 km/h for passenger trains. As of 2023, the Rail Baltica project completion is scheduled for 2030, with a start of services on some of the sections in 2028.

Rail links with adjacent countries

— Belarus, same gauge (1520 mm) — Estonia, same gauge (1520 mm) — Lithuania, same gauge (1520 mm) — Russia, same gauge (1520 mm)

Conversion to Standard Gauge

In 2022 the European Union proposed to convert all non-standard gauges in Europe to standard gauge. The Latvian government believes it would require major EU funding to implement.