Latvia's Loss-Making Railway Has to Cut Costs on Fire Trains 0 56

Instead of the disbanded crews, their colleagues from Jelgava will be responsible for saving and extinguishing fires. However, there will be a delay – the minimum travel time for a fire train from Jelgava to the Ventspils station is four hours, and to the Liepaja station – four and a half hours.

As a result of the changes, 15 jobs will be cut, LDz will abandon two fire trains in Liepaja and Ventspils, as well as one emergency recovery train in Ventspils. The annual savings will amount to about 300,000 euros, which will not need to be additionally requested from the state budget.

The Ministry of Transport explained that currently, there are two regional fire and rescue units operating at LDz's public railway infrastructure sites – in Daugavpils and Jelgava, as well as four fire and rescue teams – in Riga, Rezekne, Ventspils, and Liepaja.

Given the need to save costs and the reduction in freight transport volumes in recent years, the functions of the fire and rescue teams in Liepaja and Ventspils are planned to be transferred to the regional unit in Jelgava, expanding its area of responsibility to include these cities.

At the same time, the ministry warns freight carriers that the arrival time of fire and rescue units to the scene may increase. In some cases, local volunteer fire societies may also be involved in mitigating the consequences.

As previously reported, the turnover of Latvijas dzelzceļš last year amounted to 142.549 million euros, which is 8.1% less than the previous year. Losses reached 25.678 million euros.