"The past three-and-a-half years during which I've had the honor of managing Eesti Raudtee have been an intense and interesting period. During this time, with our excellent and committed team, we've managed to fulfill most of the ten promises I made when I first applied for this position," Laidvee said of his decision.

"The largest ever investment program in our infrastructure has been launched and is now underway, and the sustainable operation of the company has been ensured. I have done my best, and I feel it is now time to hand over the baton to the next leader."

Supervisory board chair at Eesti Raudtee Sven Pertens said that the decision was actually related to updated expectations of the company's ultimate owner, i.e. the state, along with the supervisory board's goal of focusing more on attracting international rail transit flows via Estonia.

A public competitive process for finding Laidvee's successor will be announced in the next few days, BNS reports.

Eesti Raudtee operates the bulk of Estonia's active railtrack, with two companies operating passenger routes – Elron and Edelaraudtee. Freight operators include Operail.

The company reported a 16 percent drop in freight traffic for the first 10 months of 2020, with a 27 percent fall in passenger numbers over the same period.

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