MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th March, 2020) Russian Railways said it was suspending the last direct train to Estonia on Friday, thereby officially stopping all direct passenger train traffic between Russia and Europe, all in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The Russian Railways holding usually operates train routes to a number of European countries. Earlier in March, however, as the pandemic intensified, the company suspended all of them except the one that ran from Moscow to Tallinn via St. Petersburg. On Wednesday, the head of Estonian railway company Eesti Raudtee told the ERR broadcaster said that Russian Railways had informed him about the suspension of this train starting from Friday.
"In coordination with the management of AS Eesti Raudtee and in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection, international passenger traffic between Russia and Estonia will be temporarily suspended starting from March 20. The resumption of traffic will be announced later," Russian Railways said.
An international train linking Kaliningrad with other Russian cities continues to run without stops through Lithuania.
Earlier in the day, the Russian train operator announced that routes between Belarus and Russia had been partially suspended.
