New electric trains likely to start running in August - Vitenbergs

RIGA - Latvia's new electric passenger trains might start running in August this year, Transport Minister Janis Vitenbergs (National Allianc) said in an interview on Latvian Television on Thursday. 

"These trains might start running in August," the minister said.

Vitenbergs indicated that the first new electric trains might be put on the Riga-Tukums line because train stations on this line have platforms of the necessary height.  

As reported, the new electric trains are being delivered to Latvia by trucks from the Czech Republic via Poland and Lithuania. 

So far Latvia has received nine sets of electric trains. The first new electric train reached Riga last June, the second in July, the third in October, the fourth in November, the fifth in December, the sixth in January this year, the seventh and eighth in February and the ninth in March. 

Latvian rail passenger carrier Pasazieru Vilciens is expected to receive all 32 electric trains by the end of 2023. Each of them will consist of four carriages. The length of one electric train will be 109 meters and each train will have 436 seats.

The project costs are EUR 257.889 million with co-funding from the EU Cohesion Fund worth EUR 114.211 million.

Pasazieru Vilciens was established in 2001 to separate domestic passenger services from other functions performed by the state-owned Latvijas Dzelzcels (Latvian Railway). Although initially Pasazieru Vilciens was a 100-percent owned subsidiary of the Latvian Railway, in October 2008 it was transformed into an independent state-owned company.