Latvia: Last Friday, three four-car trains started running on the lines connecting Riga with the towns of Tukums and Aizkraukle and the village of Skulte.
According to Rodžers Jānis Grigulis, chairman of the board of the passenger operator AS Pasažieru vilciens, 18 or 19 of the Czech manufacturer’s trains are scheduled for launch by the end of the year.
The rolling stock is built on the partially low-floor RegioPanter platform for 1,520 mm gauge lines. Although the trains can reach a maximum speed of 160 km/h, the infrastructure is not ready for this speed, so they will temporarily run at 120 km/h. Each train can carry 890 passengers and has 436 seats.
The €240 mln contract for the delivery of 32 trains was signed in 2019. All the trains were to be delivered this year, but so far the operator has only received 20 trains, with the remainder to be delivered in the middle of 2024. The delay was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to use an alternative delivery route due to the conflict in Ukraine.
