That color is an eye-catching yellow (with grey elements), so while Estonians have nicknamed their sleek orange express trains "carrots", we will perhaps be able to call ours "bananas". The designers of the train color scheme are the creative team of Design Studio Teika, who point out that the high visibility choice will make trains safer.
In fact Transport Minister did take delivery of a train from Škoda Vagonka, the company which will build Latvia's future fleet of locomotives, though it was considerably smaller than the finished version, being in the form of a model.
The color scheme does reference the current fleet of elderly yellow and blue diesel trains, though some current "facelifted" versions are in red and white.
As previously reported by LSM, following a protracted procurement process in July last year Pasazieru vilciens and Škoda Vagonka signed a contract for the supply of 32 new electric trains to be delivered by the end of 2023.
The new electric trains will have four carriages each and will be 109 meters in length. Each train will have 436 passenger seats. The speed of the Skoda trains will reach up to 160 kilometers per hour as compared to 130 kilometers per hour of the existing trains.
After the purchase of the new trains, Pasažieru vilciens will be able to introduce a fixed-interval schedule for train departures on all railway routes, which means that during morning and evening rush hours the trains will be departing every 15 to 20 minutes. The new trains will be running on the Aizkraukle, Tukums, Jelgava and Skulte lines.
The government has approved long-term liabilities to the national budget for a total of nearly 256 million euros in connection with the purchase.
