On the first working day of the year, train services on the Skulte-Rīga line had stopped. Eight journeys were canceled, six train compositions were stalled. Trains were delayed for several hours. The compositions were piling up in line because the new electric train had broken down at Garciems station. It was eventually delivered to the depot by another train.
Problems with the new electric trains did not start on January 2 and did not end there either. Passenger carrier Vivi announcements of delayed and canceled trains continued throughout this week. The consequences were felt on all electrified lines. Hundreds of passengers missed work, visits to doctors and other plans.
“We anticipated there could be defects like this and that's normal world practice. Of course, we didn't expect to stop and not be able to go,” said Rodžers Jānis Grigulis, chairman of the board of “Pasazieru Vilciens”, operating under Vivi brand.
He said large deviations from the schedule occurred in sections where only one track functions due to repairs. For example, one new train had a “small issue with the door” while leaving Jelgava, so the next 12 trains were delayed.
17 new trains had arrived from manufacturer Skoda Vagonka until last week. Passengers are carried by eight or nine daily. Others are still being certified, maintained, or repaired. When asked whether all issues detected are fixable, Grigulis said it was too early to call: “There have been no indications that Skoda has said we can't fix these defects, that it's impossible.”
“For now, we don't have enough information to draw more dramatic conclusions about whether any systematic problems are emerging here. Clearly, this defect with a battery affecting pantograph lifting has been repeated, so it would be investigated, but overall we see that most of these defects are relatively trivial,” said Transport Minister Kaspars Briškens (Progressives).
Asked if the new trains had not been launched on the tracks too quickly and why passengers should now become test subjects, the minister replied that the same question was also asked by the management of Skoda. The answer has been negative.
“No one puts the trains into use faster than the safe operation of them would allow. Whether we introduce it today or a week later or a month ago or a month later, these types of defects with a certain probability will emerge,” Briškens said.
De Facto notes that two-thirds of the trains commissioned by Latvia are not yet on the tracks, so passengers will have an increased opportunity to draw the short stick along with each new composition.
Skoda, which has been very quiet in commenting on the issue, is determined to send a larger team of specialists to Latvia to remove the issues more quickly. Vivi cannot say yet how much or if at all Skoda will be penalized for delays and defections in deliveries because the process has not yet concluded.
