Rail transport in Latvia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rail transport in Latvia is done on 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) 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 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge and 750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in) narrow gauge. These were gradually replaced by the Russian gauge after the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states.
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.[1]
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.[2]