Onboard Passport Control in Sight for Estonian-Russian Train Travel
Train connections between Estonia and Russia could be sped up as soon as next year if officials fulfill their pledge to begin conducting border control and customs procedures while in motion.
Late last month, Estonian and Russian officials in Moscow agreed to launch a working group tasked with developing a system by which trains traveling from Tallinn to Moscow and St. Petersburg would no longer have to stop at the border, reported uudised.err.ee.
Officials and rail operators have for long advocated such reforms. Now, Rando Kruusmaa, the Interior Ministry's deputy director of border issues, says new legislation is in the works and officials plan to pass a law this year.
Past estimates for how much time a moving passport control and customs system could save have varied from half an hour to several hours.