This is the first international railway travel event from Tallinn/Tartu to Riga!

There has been no passenger train connection between Tallinn/Tartu and Riga for more then 11 years, until this December the Estonian passenger railway company Edelaraudtee and its Latvian counterpart Pasažieru Vilciens managed to fix together the timetables of Valga-Riga train and the new fast train from Tartu to Valga. The first train starts the 1st of January morning at 6.40 from Tallinn and at 10.00 from Tartu. We'll arrive at Valga at 11.33 and take the 11.42 train, which should arrive at Riga at 15.03. A detailed timetable is at http://www.edel.ee/images/uploads/file/Valga_Riia_2010%283%29.pdf

I told to the Estonian and Latvian railway companies that there are a lot of us who want to travel ecologically and comfortably by train in the Baltic States. I promised to Edelaraudtee and Pasažieru Vilciens to gather a good bunch of international passengers who want to experience the first train in case they succeed to create the connection. And they succeeded! So, let's take the train!

I'd be glad to get suggestions from you for our travel programme: it's not fixed yet! Anyway, in Tartu there will be a New Year party!
In Riga I have planned a Pro Rail Baltica gathering in the evening of 1. January - but where and when, that's still open for your ideas! Maybe we would like to have a pique-nique in the trains (without alcohol of course)? Any more special ideas?

For accommodation in Tallinn, Tartu and Riga: please use www.hospitalityclub.org and www.couchsurfing.org sites and your friends, and if they can't help, write to me, I'll help you!

The one-way ticket from Tallinn to Tartu costs about 10 €, from Tartu to Riga most probably another 10 €. The tickets can be bought in the trains in Estonian currency.