Over 600,000 passengers take Elron trains in February

Elron passenger trains serviced over 617,000 passengers in February for a an increase of 9 percent on year.
In February, compared to the same period last year, the number of passengers increased the most in the western direction, by 17 percent overall. In the eastern direction as a whole, the number of passengers grew by 10 percent.
In January and February of this year, over 1.2 million passengers traveled by train, which is 7 percent more than during the same period last year.
While the number of train passengers in Estonia is generally on the rise, the Tallinn-Tartu-Valga/Koidula route has seen a decrease since January 2 of this year due to temporary speed restrictions imposed on passenger trains.
Elron's Communications Manager Kristo Mäe explained that Estonian Railways identified 39 crossing points with elevated risk in the eastern direction at the end of last year, where temporary speed restrictions were imposed on passenger trains until the end of June to ensure safety. "The impact of speed restrictions on the number of passengers has been noticeable on the Tallinn-Tartu-Valga and Tallinn-Tartu-Koidula routes, and the number of passengers has decreased by 5 percent in February compared to the previous year," Mäe added.
The temporary speed restrictions that came into effect on January 2 in the eastern direction led to an extension of travel times, which varied by line. For example, depending on the departure, the travel time on the Tallinn-Tartu line extended by two to nine minutes compared to the schedule in 2023, on the Tallinn-Narva lines by nine to fifteen minutes, while the travel time on the Tallinn-Aegviidu line remained the same.
Elron (AS Eesti Liinirongid) is a state-owned operator company that manages passenger train services on the railways owned by Estonian Railways and Edelaraudtee. In 2023, 7.83 million trips were made on Elron's trains.
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Editor: Merili Nael, Marcus Turovski