Vilnius-Warsaw train set to start running in December – ministers

VILNIUS - Vilnius and Warsaw have agreed that a passenger train connecting the two capitals should start running in December under a memorandum signed by Lithuanian Transport and Communications Minister Marius Skuodis and Polish Infrastructure and Construction Minister Andrzej Adamczyk in Vilnius on Friday, the Transport and Communications Ministry says.

The plan is to launch regular passenger services in three phases: trains would run on the Warsaw-Mockava-Kaunas-Vilnius route between 2022 and 2023, then they would run on the Warsaw-Kaunas-Vilnius route in 2023-2024, and the Rail Baltica European railway is completed, a direct-high-speed train would connect the two capitals.

Both countries will gradually upgrade their infrastructure to ensure that the total train trip will not exceed 8 hours by the time Rail Baltica is completed. 

Lithuania and Poland have also agreed to jointly speed up the implementation of the Rail Baltica project, expand international air and sea ports, to install automatic signaling on the section from the Polish border to Kaunas by 2026, and to upgrade the infrastructure on the Trakiske-Sokolka route.