Eesti Raudtee or EVR is the national railway company

Railway company

A railway company or railroad company is an entity that operates a railroad track and/or trains. Such a company can either be private or public...

 of Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

. It owns a network of 691 km of broad gauge

Broad gauge

Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...

 (1520 mm) railway throughout the country, including the 132 km used by the Elektriraudtee commuter train

Regional rail

Commuter rail, also called suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates between a city center, and the middle to outer suburbs beyond 15km and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters—people who travel on a daily basis...

s around Tallinn

Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...

. Eesti Raudtee operates freight train

Freight train

A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...

s domestically and to Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

.

Since 2009 the rail infrastructure operator is EVR Infra.

History

After the independence of Estonia, the state-owned company Eesti Raudtee was founded on January 1, 1992, as the national railway company of Estonia. On August 31, 2001, 66% of the stock in the company was sold by the government to Baltic Rail Services (BRS), part-owned by Railroad Development Corporation.

Following an election in 2003, the new government changed the rules on open access rights and capped the level of track charges, which reduced the railway's viability. The railway was bought back by the state in a transaction completed in January 2007. In 2009 two new EVR's wholly owned subsidiaries were formed: EVR Infra, responsible for managing the railway infrastructure, and EVR Cargo, which took over the parent company's freight operations.

Subsidiaries

• EVR Infra (100%) – managing the railway infrastructure
• EVR Cargo (100%) – freight transport

Rolling stock

• 26 ChME3
  ChME3
  Locomotive CME3 is diesel locomotive with electric transmission built by ČKD. This locomotive is used for shunting and other purposes in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other ex-USSR countries....
  
   shunters
• 4 2TE116
  2TE116
  The 2TE116 is a broad gauge double diesel locomotive manufactured by Luhanskteplovoz, used extensively to haul heavy freight trains in the Soviet Union and its successor states, particularly by RZD....
  
   locomotives
• 56 GE C36-7
  GE C36-7
  The GE C36-7 is a 6-axle diesel locomotive built by GE Transportation Systems and GE do Brasil between 1978 and 1989. 599 examples of this locomotive were built, 422 of which were exported to the People's Republic of China, which designated it ND5...
  
  i locomotives
• 19 GE C30-7Ai locomotives