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GoRail is a passenger rail operator in Estonia. The company runs daily overnight trains from Baltic station in Tallinn to Leningradsky station in Moscow, Russia, in partnership with the Russian Railways (RZD). The trains have two- or four-bed cabins as well as seating compartments. It is the only international passenger trains to serve Estonia.[1]
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Under the name EVR Ekspress, the company had been an operating division of the state railway, Eesti Raudtee. It was partially privatised on 1 April 1999, with a 51% majority share going to the Fraser Group and 49% still held by Eesti Raudtee.[2] The company was renamed GoRail in 2006 when it was sold to the Go Group, which operates various other travel services in Estonia, including Tallinn's main Baltic Station.
The St. Petersburg route did not operate between 2004 and 2007, starting again on 31 March that year.[3] It was briefly canceled again by RZD on 8 May 2007 (with effect from 29 May[4]) ostensibly due to low passenger numbers, shortly after the Bronze Night protests in Tallinn. GO Rail CEO Alar Pinsel described the Russian reasoning as "difficult to believe".[5] The cancellation was retracted a day later,[6] and the train service was never actually interrupted.
GoRail announced termination of its Tallinn-St. Petersburg rail service in July 2008. The company named high infrastructure and fuel costs as the reasons why it has decided to close the service.[7] Buses go faster and cost less than this train service. That makes the Tallinn-Moscow train the only Estonian international rail service.
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