From September 28 a train begins to run, with which passengers from Vilnius or Šiauliai will be able to go to Riga, Minsk or Kiev. On Friday afternoon, the first train left Kyiv, and on Saturday, passengers from Vilnius or Šiauliai railway stations will be able to go to Riga, Minsk or Kyiv.
For the time being, it will be possible to travel on the Kyiv-Riga route connecting the capitals of four countries once a week. The duration of the entire route is 19 hours.
The train journey from Vilnius to Riga will take about 4 hours. 30 minutes, from Šiauliai - about 2 hours, the press release says.
Train tickets can already be purchased at railway station ticket offices, in the future it is planned to sell tickets online. A travel ticket from Šiauliai to Riga will cost from 16 euros, from Vilnius - from 23 euros. Vilnius-Kiev train tickets will cost from 50 euros. Travelers going to Kyiv will need transit visas for Belarus.
Linas Baužys, director of the Passenger Transport Directorate of Lietuvos Geležinkėlių, says that the new route is also relevant for Lithuanians because of Riga, because until now it was not possible to go there by train.
"Traveling by train is a bit different from traveling by plane, it usually goes from one point to another, and the train goes and stops at more than one at the station. Let's say that there will be people who will definitely go from Kyiv to Vilnius, and there will be a lot of people who want to get to Riga, because we probably haven't had a train connecting our capitals - Vilnius and Riga - for a couple of decades. The same opportunity arises for people from Šiauliai to get on the train and go to Riga," L. Baužys told LRT RADIO.
