THE LATVIAN government is to introduce a bill in November to split the national railways into five business units, following the passing of legislation in April enabling the partial privatisation of the LDZ network.
Following studies of rail restructuring in Sweden, Germany and Great Britain, Latvian transport minister Uldis Petersons favours privatisation of train operations and the retention of infrastructure under state control. British consultancy Gibb Rail has been selected to assist with the transition process.
The new legislation will convert LDZ into five units, responsible for infrastructure, freight, passengers, rolling stock and property. These will be given two years to become established, after which the first private operators are expected to begin running in 2002. LDZ freight traffic recovered strongly last year, up from 29 million tonnes in 1995 to 41 million tonnes, with transit traffic to and from the Russian Federation seen as a major potential market. o
