Seven new electric trains dispatched to carry passengers on Thursday

RIGA - Pasazieru Vilciens train operator is providing rail passenger services with seven new electric trains on Thursday, LETA was told at the company. 

The company's representatives informed that Pasazieru Vilciens plans to launch around 12 new electric trains by the end of the year. 

According to the company's representatives, Czech train manufacturer Skoda Vagonka originally intended to deliver up to 19 trains to Latvia by the end of 2023, but as of December 27, the company had managed to prepare 17 new trains for operation in Latvia.

Pasazieru Vilciens' representatives also noted that the movement of the new trains is not always shown correctly on the interactive train map on the company's website, as some of the Skoda trains do not receive accurate GPS data to ensure accurate representation.

Skoda Vagonka has promised to correct the trains' data processing algorithms so that the trains' movement on the rail tracks could be shown correctly on the map. 

As reported on December 15, Pasazieru Vilciens started passenger services with three new electric trains in the direction of Tukums, Aizkraukle and Skulte, while on December 16 the new electric trains started running also in the direction of Jelgava.

Each electric train consists of four carriages. One electric train is 109 meters long. Each train has seating for 436 passengers. The trains have single-level boarding from elevated passenger platforms.

Skoda Group is expected to deliver a total of 32 trains to Latvia. Each of them will consist of four wagons. 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 turnover in the first nine months of this year was EUR 44.256 million, up 19.2 percent on the same period last year, while its profit fell 21 percent to EUR 458,074.

Pasazieru Vilciens was established in 2001, separating domestic passenger transport from the functions performed by Latvijas Dzelzcels.