{"id":154641,"date":"2026-01-13T07:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T05:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/?p=154641"},"modified":"2026-01-13T07:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T05:39:09","slug":"by-train-from-tallinn-to-riga-a-new-afternoon-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/by-train-from-tallinn-to-riga-a-new-afternoon-departure\/","title":{"rendered":"By Train From Tallinn to Riga\u2014a New Afternoon Departure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Elron, which operates passenger rail services in Estonia, yesterday on 12 January launched a daily direct afternoon connection from <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/elron.ee\/en\/Tallinn-Tartu-Riga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s1\">Tallinn via Tartu to Riga<\/span><\/a><\/span>, operated without a change of trains. Since late last year, it has already been possible to travel from Estonia to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius via Riga on a morning departure, which includes one easy train change in the Estonian\u2013Latvian border town of Valga.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cPassenger interest in this route has been high\u2014last year more than 16,000 passengers took advantage of the opportunity to travel by train from Estonia to Latvia and Lithuania or vice versa,\u201d said <b>M\u00e4rt Ehrenpreis<\/b>, a member of Elron\u2019s management, during a media trip held ahead of the route\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left;\">From Tallinn, Elron\u2019s train to Riga departs at 14:50, and from Tartu at 17:05. It arrives in Riga at 20:46, making the journey time just under six hours. The service is operated with Stadler Flirt trains familiar from Helsinki\u2019s commuter traffic, which do not offer restaurant services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Elron does not sell tickets on the new train for passengers travelling only to Tartu or Valga, nor are first-class seat reservations familiar from domestic Estonian services available. As a result, the quick may well beat the slow in securing the more spacious seats when the train opens its doors at Tallinn\u2019s Balti Jaama Station more than 15 minutes before departure. Ticket prices for the Tallinn\u2013Riga route range from \u20ac29 to \u20ac32, and for Tartu\u2013Riga from \u20ac19 to \u20ac22, depending on the sales channel\u2014tickets purchased online 1\u20137 days in advance are cheaper, while those bought from the conductor on board are more expensive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The morning departure at 10:25 from Tallinn runs on an Elron train as far as Valga. There, passengers transfer to an LTG Link train from Lithuania waiting on the opposite side of the same platform, which also has a restaurant car. The morning train can be reached from Helsinki using the first ferry departing at 7:30, provided the transfer in Tallinn is made without delay using tram line 2 via the harbour. Ride-hailing services Bolt and Uber, as well as taxis, are around five minutes faster for those rushing to catch the train.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The return journey on the new service departs from Riga in the morning at 7:38, arriving in Tallinn at 13:57. At weekends, from Friday to Sunday, it is also possible to travel between the two capitals in the afternoon using two separate trains: by taking Elron\u2019s Tallinn\u2013Valga service from 13:33 to 17:15, and then transferring to a local train operated by Latvian company Vivi. This departs Valga at 17:25 but, due to stops at smaller stations, arrives in Riga only at 20:40\u2014almost the same time as Elron\u2019s direct connection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"604\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tallinna-riika-vilna-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-154635\" srcset=\"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tallinna-riika-vilna-1.jpg 604w, https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tallinna-riika-vilna-1-459x650.jpg 459w, https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tallinna-riika-vilna-1-78x110.jpg 78w, https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tallinna-riika-vilna-1-18x25.jpg 18w, https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tallinna-riika-vilna-1-120x170.jpg 120w, https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tallinna-riika-vilna-1-106x150.jpg 106w, https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tallinna-riika-vilna-1-210x297.jpg 210w, https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tallinna-riika-vilna-1-450x637.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Elron, which operates passenger rail services in Estonia, yesterday on 12 January launched a daily direct afternoon connection from &hellip; <span class=\"read-more-excerpt\">Read more<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":154630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[309,13270,13881,14849,14851,23881,26649],"class_list":["post-154641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estonia","tag-tallinn","tag-tartu-2","tag-valga-2","tag-elron-2","tag-trains","tag-ltg","tag-rail-transport"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154642,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154641\/revisions\/154642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}