Railway line Riga - Lugazi

The first data on plans to build a railway line from the Pskov station on the Petersburg-Warsaw line to Riga refer to 1874 . The General Staff of the Russian Ministry of Defense believed that the line was necessary in case of an emergency transfer of troops from St. Petersburg to the western borders of the empire. However, the merchants treated these plans extremely negatively, fearing that the construction of the line would weaken the economic position of the port of St. Petersburg and the St. Petersburg-Tallinn line of the Baltic Railway. The Riga-Dinaburgsky Railway Society tried to get a contract for the construction of the line, starting in 1876 and ending in 1884 , when the emperor ordered to build a road with public funds.

Construction began in 1886 , and on July 22, 1889, regular traffic was opened on the line. The distance from the Pskov station to Riga ( Zemitans ) was 306 km. A branch of the line was also considered a branch of the Valka - Tartu .

After the transfer of the private lines of the Baltic Railway Society to the jurisdiction of the state in 1893, the Baltic Railway was organized on their basis, which included the Pskov-Riga line. In 1907 , with the accession to the Baltic and also the Petersburg-Warsaw railway, the North-Western railways were formed, which operated the Pskov-Riga line until 1918 , when the German army captured the line. The Germans have moved the section Riga - Ieriki to the European track .

In 1919, the headquarters of the railways gradually took over control of the line and returned to the Russian gauge. The Riga- Strenci section was altered by 1,435 mm in 1920 and already in 1921 - again by 1,524 mm .

After the establishment of the state border, the broad gauge station Valka (now Valga) was on the territory of Estonia, and the nearest Latvian station, Saul, was located 14 km from it. In order to allow trains to stop at Valka and simplify the procedure for crossing the border, wide-gauge branches were made from the main line to Valka narrow-gauge station. Due to the obligatory train visits of this station, the route to Estonia was extended by 2 km (164 km from Zemitana to the border).

During the Second World War, the Germans used the line to supply troops on the Leningrad front . According to the recollections of Janis Stakle, who for many years was the operating director of the head department of railways, traffic on the line reached 36 pairs per day, with a theoretical maximum of 32.

In order to provide such dense traffic, in 1941 - 1942 the following patrols were equipped on the line: Krivupe, Izhevi (Patmale), Bille (Melturi), Autine (Bumburi), Busleya (Priecene), Abula, Talava, Seda and Lugazhi (Luda). Departures were not called by two names at the same time, just the names assigned by a special decision of the commission were basically replaced later by more suitable, in the opinion of the commission members, a particular place.

After the war, most of the trips were abolished. In preparation for the electrification of the Riga- Sigulda section, in 1980 a second route was laid along its entire length, with the exception of the Krievupe - Vangazi section. Also, a second route was laid on the steep section of Cesis - Yanyamuizha . Until 1992, the Riga- Garkalne section was electrified, after which the work was curtailed for economic reasons ^[2] .

On November 2014, passengers on the line are served by three pairs of trains Riga - Valga per day ^[3] .