2019

Background of the Conference

Valga became a railway town in 1887 when the Tartu-Valga railway line was completed and trains began to operate on it. A year later, the railway line from Valga to Riga was completed. In 1889, the railway line from Valga to Pskov was finished, and Valga developed into a railway junction. In the same year, a representative station building was completed, and Valga became a railway hub.

While the previous railway development concerned the broad-gauge railway, in 1896, with the completion of the Valga-Pärnu railway connection, the narrow-gauge railway also reached here. In 1903, the narrow-gauge railway connection from Valga to Aluksne was completed, which was later extended to Gulbene. After resolving the Estonian-Latvian border dispute in 1920, the broad-gauge railway station remained with Estonia, and the narrow-gauge railway station with Latvia. However, Estonia was still interested in obtaining a connection with the narrow-gauge railway. Thus, in 1923, a narrow-gauge railway section was built from Valka station to Valga station and further to Koikküla.

Between the two world wars, several unsuccessful attempts were made to rebuild the railway between Valga and Pärnu so that it would run solely through Estonian territory via Tõrva. However, the battles of 1944 caused such significant damage to the section between Valga and Pärnu on Latvian territory that the narrow-gauge railway traffic was not restored there. The Soviet authorities decided to transform the road between Valga and Uulu into a national highway instead of the Valga-Pärnu railway, eliminating the need for a new railway construction. However, the narrow-gauge railway traffic between Valga and Mõniste was restored. It was only closed in 1970 when the Soviet authorities decided to cease all passenger traffic on the narrow-gauge railway. Therefore, this conference focused more on the historical narrow-gauge railway.

Conference materials are avalable in the Estonian version of the museum website.