Green Railway

The “Green Railway II” project team meets in Haapsalu

Posted on by laura

EE-LV00057 – Green Railway II

From September 11 to 12, 2024, the partners of the “Green Railway II” project met at the Haapsalu Railway and Communications Museum. During the visit, they explored the museum, the unique station building, and learned about the plan to restore a locomotive to make it accessible for people with mobility impairments.

The Railway and Communications Museum is located in the historic Haapsalu station building, adorned with wooden carvings and built in the Historicism style. The station features an unusually long, covered platform (213.6 meters), designed to accommodate the length of the imperial train. This is the longest wooden platform in the world under a roof! The first passenger train arrived in Haapsalu in 1904, and the last one in 1995. Today, the building houses a museum, a bus station, and former restaurant spaces are available for various events, including wedding ceremonies. To make the museum’s exhibits more accessible for people with mobility impairments, the museum is involved in a project aimed at making one of the locomotives accessible. The museum has also created a pedal-powered railcar, which we had the chance to learn about and test.

The second day focused on the technical aspects of the project – technical parameters of tourism materials, design adjustments for people with visual impairments, website accessibility for those with partial or total vision loss, and exhibition planning. Each pilot solution provider had the opportunity to present their achievements and offer advice to other project partners. Collaborative involvement is a key factor for the successful implementation of the project. These pilot solutions will later be adopted and adapted by other project partners. Therefore, the Kurzeme Planning Region and South Kurzeme Municipality representatives are currently working with partners from Latvia and Estonia to implement these solutions in the first Green Railways route in Kurzeme: “Liepāja – Pāvilosta”!
The “Green Railway II” project is implemented within Interreg VI-A Estonia – Latvia Programme. The leading partner is the Latvian Green Roads Association, and the project involves partners from Latvia and Estonia: Kurzeme Planning Region, South Kurzeme Municipality, Limbaži Municipality, Valmiera Municipality, Gulbene Municipality, Smiltene Municipality, Mulgi Municipality, Valga Municipality, Mustvee Municipality, Haapsalu and Läänemaa Museums, and the Estonian Railway Museum.
For more information about Green Railways in Latvia, visit – www.greenrailways.eu/izvelies-zalo-celu

More about the Interreg Estonia – Latvia Programme: www.estlat.eu

Project manager

Aija Neilande
+371 26 147 139
aija.neilande@kurzemesregions.lv