Lithuanian Railways

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Lietuvos Geležinkeliai

Type	Group of public companies
Founded	1860 (First Line) 1919 (Official)
Headquarters	Vilnius, Lithuania
Key people	Stasys Dailydka, General Manager
Industry	Rail transport
Products	Rail transport, Cargo transport, Services
Revenue	▲ 111,7 mil LTL (2006)
Owner	The Lithuanian state
Website	Official Site

A TEM2 diesel locomotive of Lithuanian Railways at Kėdainiai

Lithuanian Railways (Lietuvos Geležinkeliai) is the national, state-owned railway company of Lithuania. It operates all the railway lines in the country.

Lithuanian Railways' main network consists of 1749 km of broad gauge railway of which 122 km are electrified. They also operate 22 km of standard gauge lines. A 179 km narrow gauge network was split into a separate company ASG in 2001, 68 km remains in use.

In 2006 Lithuanian Railways transported 6.2 million passengers and 50 million tonnes of freight. Oil is the main freight item carried.^[1]

1 History
2 Rolling Stock
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

In 1851, the government of Russia made the decision to build a St.Petersburg - Warsaw railway line. The line included a stretch from Daugavpils - Vilnius - Kaunas - Virbalis which was started in 1858 and finished in 1860. When the German army occupied Lithuania in 1915, the railway became the main supplier of food staff and ammunition for the German army. In 1918 Lithuanian independence was restored, and in 1919 the Lithuanian government concluded an agreement with Germany on the hand over of the railway assets to the Ministry of Transport.

During the years after WWI, Lithuanian Railways reconstructed the tracks, connecting them into a complete network. In 1923 the Klaipėda region was given back to Lithuania. The port of Klaipėda had become a part of the Lithuanian railway system. In 1940 the USSR occupied Lithuania, and railway activities were reorganized and all the agreements of Lithuania concluded with the neighbouring countries were terminated. In 1941, the Nazis occupying force changed most of the network from broad gauge to standard gauge. This was changed back by Soviets in 1944. During Soviet times all of the Baltic states railways were managed from Riga. In 1991, the railways of the Baltic region were once again divided into separate railway companies.^[2]