I do wonder if there is really a need for all these new direct Vilnius to Valga and Riga to Tallinn services. Lots of frequent connections would be much better. There seems to be an obsession with countries wanting direct trains everywhere but i find that frequent easy well timed connections are far better than odd once a day through services. I would rather they worked on increasing the frequencies of the Vilnius to Riga and Riga to Valga and Valga to Tallinn services.
From following the conversations in the (long) run up to the introduction of this route, I think it was mostly intended to serve Tartu - Riga more than Tallinn - Riga; at least this is how it has always been described.
News article describing planned service from Tartu to Riga
Also putting a two car flirt on this new Riga to Tallinn service is crazy especially when Elron have plenty of four coach flirts in their fleet to use instead.
Elron is really short of diesel trains at the moment. The Flirt fleet has never been big enough to cope with the massive increase in passenger numbers that accompanied the massive improvement from the previous Soviet Edelaraudtee / Elektriraudtee fleets and has been subject to ongoing overcrowding.
News article about overcrowding after introduction of new fleet Further, they always seem to have a lot of units out of action because of level crossing accidents; I think currently 2.
News article about service changes following recent accident
Line upgrades have allowed the current fleet to run faster and therefore more intensively; but of course faster more frequent services have then in turn made the services more attractive and simulated even more demand.
However the government aspires to completely electrify the country, so there isn't politcal will to buy more diesel trains.
Article about plans to electrify entire network I suspect it may not be reasonable to electrify the routes from Tartu to Koidula / Piusa and Valga; they are very lightly used rural routes and the fact that one of them points at Russia makes it an even less important connection than it was before; but it is nevertheless the current intention!
When you look at the current situation it seems like they got themselves into a strange situation. However 20 years ago service levels were things like 2 trains a day to Tartu that took 3.5 hours, and it was absolutely possible that the entire passenger network could have been abandoned. It would have taken a brave person to predict what was going to happen next correctly!
Interestingly this new Tallinn to Riga service seems to stay overnight in Riga before returning. I am surprised as i thought it would do the full return trip on one day like the Vilnius to Valga service. It means that Elron will have to pay for overnight hotel stays in Riga every day unless PV are planning to train their staff on the flirts and have them take over for the Riga to Valga section.
It is run by PV in Latvia. I think I'm right in saying that the LTG Link service is too, on that section?
the Baltics are an area i feel like sleeper trains would work well in but seems to never had the revival such services had in the west
With a view to Rail Baltica (which plans Tallinn - Vienna and Berlin sleepers), and operators are more reluctant to do capital intensive short term things (like, for example, upgrading the current railway from Tallinn to Parnu ahead of Rail Baltica).
Until the Events of 2020 there was a Ukrzaliznytsia service from Kyiv to Riga and plans to extend it to Tallinn, and they were perhaps the ideal operator for that kind of route; there was a good match between slow old tracks and slow old cheap stock. 2020 got in the way of that, and then of course 2022 changed Ukrzaliznytsia's priorities and whether or not they could operate in Belarus.
Article about Kyiv - Riga service
It is strange to see a two carriage diesel train operate a six hour long intercity service and it doesn't look like they have plans to order something more appropriate either. Then again VY operate three services per day from Malmo to Oslo which is also six hours long on a five car Stadler Flirt.
Being more intended to serve the Tartu - Riga market, and given the fleet shortages, 2 carriages is about right. It won't be enough in the summer for sure, but in the same way as absolutely nothing they run on the Tallinn - Rapla - Viljandi line is ever capable of being long enough!
