Passenger Rail Service Between Tartu and Riga Opens 0 23

Regular services on this route will begin on January 12.

The inaugural train from Tartu will depart today at 7:23, with stops in Valga, Valmiera, Cēsis, and Sigulda.

The train will arrive in Riga at 14:07.

From Riga, the train to Tartu will leave at 15:17, making stops in Sigulda, Cēsis, Valmiera, and Valga.

As previously reported, starting January 12, the train on this route will operate once a day.

Passenger transport on the Tallinn – Tartu – Riga route will be provided by Elron in cooperation with Vivi. On the section between Valga and Riga, Elron trains will be operated by drivers from the Latvian company.

According to the initial schedule, the train will depart from Tallinn at 14:50, from Tartu at 17:05, and arrive in Riga at 20:52. In the opposite direction, the train will leave Riga at 7:40, arrive in Tartu at 11:25, and in Tallinn at 14:11.

The ticket price from Tartu to Riga will range from 19 to 22 euros.

At the same time, the Tallinn – Tartu – Riga – Vilnius service will also remain, along with an additional service with a transfer on the Tallinn – Tartu – Riga line on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

As previously reported, in January 2025, passenger rail operators from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia — Vivi, LTG Link, and Elron — began implementing the Tallinn – Tartu – Riga – Vilnius rail route. The journey, lasting over ten hours, includes a transfer in Valga.

In September, an additional train began operating on the Tallinn – Tartu – Riga route with a transfer on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The section between Tallinn and Valga is served by Elron, while the section between Valga and Riga is served by Vivi.

The passenger transport subsidiary of the Lithuanian Railways group, Lietuvos geležinkeliai — LTG Link — began operating trains on the Riga – Vilnius route at the end of December 2023.

Negotiations to connect the capitals of all three Baltic countries by passenger rail routes intensified in September 2021, when, on the occasion of the European Year of Railways, the Baltic Express departed from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius. At the train, the ministers of the time, representatives of the railway industry from the Baltic countries, and the European Commission, as well as the implementers of the Rail Baltica project, met.