The rail transport system in Estonia consists of about 1200 km of railway lines, of which 900 km are currently in public use. The infrastructure of the railway network is mostly owned by the state and is regulated and surveyed by the Estonian Technical Surveillance Authority. All public railways in Estonia are (Russian gauge), the same as in Russia, Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania. The gauge used in Estonia is also compatible with Finland's gauge. Sometimes it is defined to be (see Rail gauge in Estonia), for example when buying track maintenance or vehicles from Finland. Railways in Estonia today are used mostly for freight transport, but also for passenger traffic, with 8.3 million passengers reported in 2019. Passenger transport is most frequent near Tallinn, centred on the main Tallinn Baltic Station. The Tallinn to Tartu railway is due to be electrified by 2024, with electrification of the remaining network expected to be completed by 2028. 16 new electric trains manufactured by Škoda Transportation are due to come into service starting 2024, with the first having arrived in Estonia in June 2024.

History

Network

The Estonian railway network is owned by the state-owned company AS Eesti Raudtee and the private company Edelaraudtee Infrastruktuuri AS. These railway network infrastructure operators provide all railway network services for railway operators running freight and passenger services. AS Eesti Raudtee provides approximately 800 km of track, of which 107 km is double track and 133 km is electrified. Edelaraudtee Infrastruktuuri AS maintains 298 km of track which consists of 219 km of main line and 79 km of station line.

Main lines

Owned by AS Eesti Raudtee: Owned by Edelaraudtee Infrastruktuuri AS:

Major industrial railways

Future expansion

Rail Baltica is an ongoing greenfield railway infrastructure project which will link all Baltic States, including Estonia, Poland and, eventually, Finland. Being a part of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), it is one of the priority projects of the European Union. It will introduce standard-gauge high-speed rail with an operating speed of 249 km/h for passenger trains. As of 2023, the Rail Baltica project completion is scheduled for 2030, with a start of services on some of the sections in 2028.

Conversion to Standard Gauge

A 2022 European Union proposal for all new rail lines to be Standard Gauge and a rolling plan introduced to convert other gauges to Standard would cost Estonia an estimated €8.7 billion which raises questions over cost/benefit.

Connections to adjacent countries

Until 2022, daily passenger service connected Tallinn with Moscow (night train; travel time is 15 hours) through Narva and Saint Petersburg and was operated by the Russian Railways. As of fall 2024, three daily trains operated by Latvian Railways connect Riga (Latvia) to Valga (Estonia). The other railway lines to neighbouring countries are not used for direct passenger traffic at the moment. It is possible to travel between Tallinn and Riga with train change at Valga, and the timetables of Tallinn–Valga and Valga–Riga are adjusted for that purpose, but this still takes a long time compared to bus (travel time about 5 hours) or air. Historic train routes are Tallinn–Moscow via Tartu–Pechory, and Riga–St. Petersburg, which passed through Estonia from Valka, Latvia to Valga, Estonia–Võru–Piusa–Pechory, Russia. Both were closed in the 1990s. A new high-speed line Tallinn–Warsaw, Rail Baltica, is currently under construction and is planned to be in operation around 2028-2030. There are also plans to construct a railway tunnel to Helsinki.

Railway links with adjacent countries

Operators

Freight trains are operated by Eesti Raudtee and private companies including Estonian Railway Services (E.R.S. AS), and Spacecom. Passenger services are offered by three operators: