Darja from Daugavpils wants to study in Rīga, so she planned to go to the capital to submit documents in university and had purchased a ticket for a morning trip to arrive at the capital at 9. She could not get on the morning train as there were no more seats left.
“When I came around six, there were people with the ticket-teller arguing, and so I realized that there were no more tickets,” Darja said. Getting back had also proven difficult.
The Krāslava-Rīga route contains a limited number of passenger seats, so tickets should be purchased in advance or passengers should arrive very early because they cannot be purchased remotely.
“Demand really exceeded what was expected these days. Passenger Train then acted and increased the number of train cars on other train trips to avoid such situations,” said Viktors Zaķis, head of public relations at the Road Transport Directorate.
The inability to properly ensure passenger transport between the two largest cities of Latvia poses serious obstacles for the Daugavpilians.
"Either increase capacity for railway transport or additional train cars, six instead of three, additional services between the region and the capital may also be introduced. It is then necessary to return to the question of the renewal of bus transport," said Andrejs Elksniņš, Chairman of Daugavpils City Council.
He turned to the Ministry of Transport, the Road Transport Directorate and JSC “Passenger Train”.
Restoring commercial bus traffic between the capital and Daugavpils, which closed this year in March, will not be profitable, the Road Transport Directorate said.
“If these buses are not, as they say, filled, their fulfillment is extremely minor, it certainly requires a considerable amount of funds,” said Zaķis.
On Thursday August 24, JSC Passenger Train announced that a solution had been found by attaching more train cars. Time will show whether it will improve the opportunities for all travelers to reach the capital.
