A train route launched between the capital cities of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in January has exceeded expectations in terms of passenger numbers. The sale of bus tickets along the same route have declined by more than 25%, according to Mart Ehrenpreis, a board member of Estonia’s passenger train company Elron.

“Roughly half of our passengers travel between Tartu and Riga, and there’s also a lot of traffic on to Vilnius,” he said.

As to the future, Ehrenpreis promised that “in the near future, an additional Riga-bound train will depart on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, so that there will be two trains toward Riga. On the return leg, however, there will still be only one connection due to our schedule for reconstruction of our rail infrastructure.”

More comprehensive passenger statistics for the three countries are still being compiled.

“Of interest, though, is the fact that we were initially sceptical as to whether anybody would want to take a train trip all the way to Vilnius,” Ehrenpreis added. “We were surprised at how many people have travelled along the entire route.”

Ingmar Roos is head of business operations in Estonia for the Lux Express bus company, and he said that passenger numbers on the Tartu-Riga and Tartu-Vilnius lines have dropped by 20-25%. This fall, the number of daily departures will drop from three to two, he said.

Roos added, however, that Lux Express has not changed ticket prices in response to the new rail services. The train ticket from Tallinn to Vilnius costs EUR 39, the bus ticket on Lux Express costs about the same, but the bus arrives at its destination about an hour sooner than the train.

Source: BNS

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