Lithuania’s rail carrier LTG Link expects the new connection to be as popular as the Vilnius-Riga route, which was offered a year ago.
"A year ago, on 27 December, when the Vilnius-Riga service was launched, we saw a very strong interest from passengers in travelling between the capitals. So, we agreed with Latvian and Estonian carriers to make it possible for people to continue their travel to Tallinn," Violeta Šimelionienė, head for international business development at LTG Link, told LRT public radio on Monday.
In the initial stage, passengers from Vilnius will need to change two trains to reach Tallinn.
On 15 December, the first train of Vivi, Latvia’s rail carrier, left from Riga to Valga in southern Estonia in time adjusted to the arrival of a LTG Link train from Vilnius to Riga. Passengers have nearly 20 minutes to change the trains.
On 6 January, the timetable of an additional train of Elron, Estonia’s rail carrier, going between Tallin and Valga was adjusted to the Riga-Valga train’s arrival time.
The journey from Vilnius to Tallinn by train currently takes almost 10.5 hours, including passenger transfers in Riga and Valga. It is set to become shorter in the future, according to Šimelionienė.
The new connection is expected to provide an alternative to car travel and lay the groundwork for further improvements in connectivity. The ultimate goal is to establish a direct, competitive daily train service between the capitals of the Baltic States, LTG Railways said earlier.