RIGA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The Latvian government on Tuesday gave the national operator of rail passenger services the permission to buy new passenger trains, a government spokesperson said.
This means that Pasazieru Vilciens railway company can now go ahead with the second round of a tender to get 32 new electric trains for the price of roughly 200 million euros.
To finance the purchase, Pasazieru Vilciens plans to raise a loan, which will leave an impact on the government budget, reducing its fiscal space by around 165 million euros in the next coming years.
Some of the passenger trains currently in use in Latvia are even 50 years old and in poor technical condition. Pasazieru Vilciens CEO Andris Lubans said, adding that it is the high time to buy new trains because the old ones will become unusable very soon.
"I would say that the very existence of passenger trains in the public transport system is at stake here, because the existing trains are in such a rundown condition that we can no longer guarantee that they will still remain in use in a few years," Lubans said.
He added that five of the potential train suppliers that got through the first round of the tender would be invited to take part in the second round, which will be announced in the next few days.
Pasazieru Vilciens hopes to conclude the train purchase deal with the winner of the tender at the beginning of 2018.
Latvian Transport Minister Uldis Augulis also stressed that the trains have to purchased urgently.
It is planned that the first new passenger trains might start running in Latvia in 2020. (1 euro = 1.12 U.S.dollars) Enditem
