Lithuania
Lithuania is the largest and most populous of the Baltic states, 65,300 km² holding about 2.86 million people, with Vilnius in the south-east close to the Belarusian border. Latvia lies to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to the south-west. The Baltic coast is short — barely ninety kilometres — and half of it is the Curonian Spit, a dune barrier that shelters a lagoon from the open sea.
The main network runs to about 1,869 km of 1,520 mm broad gauge, operated by Lietuvos geležinkeliai through its passenger arm LTG Link, linking Vilnius with Kaunas, Klaipėda on the coast and, since December 2023, Riga again. Alongside it survives something rarer: the Aukštaitija narrow-gauge railway, 68.4 km of 750 mm track from Panevėžys to Rubikiai that Lithuania protected in 1996 as a cultural heritage object — not only the trains, but the stations, the water towers and a viaduct.
Rail journeys in Lithuania
Good to know
What is the Aukštaitija narrow-gauge railway?
A 68.4 km line of 750 mm gauge running from Panevėžys through Anykščiai to Rubikiai, built from 1891 and carrying regular traffic from 1899. Ordinary services ended in the 1990s and it now runs for visitors behind TU2 diesel locomotives. Lithuania listed it as a cultural heritage object in 1996 and gave individual protection in 2003 to the trackbed, the Panevėžys depot and viaduct, and the station buildings along it — it is protected as architecture as much as as a railway. The part with a public timetable is the eastern end, Anykščiai to Rubikiai, at weekends from May to October; the rest of the line runs by charter.
Is an Interrail or Eurail pass worth it in Lithuania?
Interrail sells a one-country pass for Lithuania. Whether it pays depends on how much ground you cover: fares on LTG Link are inexpensive and the country is not large, so a handful of ordinary tickets is often cheaper. The pass makes more sense across several countries. Do not assume it covers the narrow gauge, which is run as a separate visitor operation.
Can you get to Latvia and Poland by train?
A direct Vilnius–Riga service resumed on 27 December 2023, having last run in January 2004, and it now forms the middle of a coordinated Tallinn–Riga–Vilnius connection bookable on one ticket. Southwards towards Poland the picture is more awkward, because the gauge changes at the border — which is precisely the gap the Rail Baltica project exists to close.
How do you reach the Curonian Spit?
Not directly by rail. Trains run to Klaipėda, Lithuania's only seaport and the western end of the main line from Vilnius; the spit itself is reached from there by ferry across the narrow strait to Smiltynė. The railway gets you to the coast, and the last stage is a boat.