Elron train ridership in Estonia up almost 6% in third quarter
Estonia's state-owned railway company Elron recorded more than 1.966 million trips in the third quarter of 2026, 5.9% more than a year earlier. The company credits fewer repair works, cheaper season tickets and faster trains on the Tallinn–Tartu line.
Elron, Estonia's state-owned passenger rail operator, recorded more than 1.966 million train trips in the third quarter of 2026. That is 5.9% more than in the same period last year, the company said. The rise shows growing demand for passenger rail travel in Estonia.
Between January and September, Elron trains made more than 5.885 million trips, compared with 5.683 million a year earlier. Over the whole of 2025, the company's trains carried 7.66 million trips.
What drove the increase
Rauno Riiner, Elron's head of services, named several factors behind the growth: a reduction in repair work on the railway infrastructure, lower prices for season tickets, and faster train services on the Tallinn–Tartu line. The launch of the Tallinn–Tapa service and international rail routes also had an additional effect.
Riiner said that, despite a considerable rise in fuel prices, the company kept single-ticket prices unchanged. The price of period tickets was even lowered to make rail travel more affordable.
Most popular routes
The busiest routes in the third quarter were Tallinn–Turba with 384,500 trips, Tallinn–Paldiski with 354,200 trips and Tallinn–Viljandi with 154,600 trips.
Compared with the third quarter of 2025, the number of trips grew by 9% in the eastern direction, 7.6% in the southern direction, 6% in the southwestern direction and 4.3% in the western direction.
Punctuality
In the first nine months of 2026, Elron trains operated a total of 62,907 services. According to the company, about 98% of them ran on schedule.
