The aim of the work was to find out how has the railway passenger traffic in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania changed between the last times of Soviet Union and present times. The followig check points were selected: 1991, 1997, 2002 and 2009. The aim of the work was also to find out reasons for the changes, to describe the present day situation and to describe the ways of possible future development.

According to the results of this study, the amount of railway passenger traffic has decreased about 50 per cent in every three countries when measured by the weekly amount of train kilometres. Yearly passenger amounts have decreased significantly in every three Baltic countries during the observation period. Reasons for the decrease of railway passenger traffic have been for example tough competition with buses and private cars. During the economically severe years of 1990s the Baltic railway companies were not able to renew their rolling stock.

Because of the international economic crisis the economical situation has weakened in every three Baltic countries. This may be a new threat to railway passenger traffic. High network access fees are preventing effectively the development of railway passenger traffic.