Rail traffic is organised by the state-owned Elron. You can take trains from Tartu to Tallinn and Valga as well as along the Põlva-Piusa line.
Visit Elron’s website for information on timetables and prices.
Rail traffic has held a prominent place in Tartu throughout the city’s history. Tartu is an important historical junction for freight trains as well as passenger transport.
Its railway station was built alongside the Tartu-Tapa line in 1876, the latter being a branch of the Paldiski-St Petersburg line completed in 1870. The first train to arrive in Tartu did so on 21 August 1876. The construction of the track between Tallinn and Tartu was funded primarily by local manufacturers who needed the railway to deliver raw material and goods. The track operating on the Tartu-Valga-Rīga line was constructed in 1889 and the Tartu-Pechory railway in 1931.
Tartu Railway Station was renovated in 2012. In 2017 the square in front of the station was also revamped.