State owned | |
Industry | Transport |
Founded | 1992 |
Headquarters | Tallinn, Estonia |
Area served
|
Estonia |
Products | Freight trains |
Parent | Government of Estonia |
Website | www.evr.ee |
Locale | Estonia |
---|---|
Track gauge | 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 27⁄32 in) |
Headquarters | Tallinn |
Eesti Raudtee or EVR is the national railway company of Estonia. It owns a network of 691 kilometres (429 mi) of broad gauge (1,520 mm (4 ft 11 27⁄32 in)) railway throughout the country, including the 192 kilometres (119 mi) used by the Elron commuter trains around Tallinn. Eesti Raudtee operates freight trains domestically and to Russia and Latvia. Its sole shareholder is the government of Estonia.
Since 2009 the rail infrastructure operator is EVR Infra.
After the independence of Estonia, the state-owned company Eesti Raudtee was founded on January 1, 1992, as the national railway company of Estonia. On August 31, 2001, 66% of the stock in the company was sold by the government to Baltic Rail Services (BRS), part-owned by Railroad Development Corporation.
Following an election in 2003, the new government changed the rules on open access rights and capped the level of track charges, which reduced the railway's viability. The railway was bought back by the state in a transaction completed in January 2007. In 2009 two new EVR's wholly owned subsidiaries were formed: EVR Infra, responsible for managing the railway infrastructure, and EVR Cargo, which took over the parent company's freight operations. In 2012 freight operator AS EVR Cargo was separated from Eesti Raudtee and EVR Infra was renamed to Eesti Raudtee.
Coordinates: 59°26′19″N 24°44′04″E / 59.438521°N 24.734393°E