TALLINN — Estonian Railways announced Wednesday that it has decided to buy 18 new trains to replace its current fleet, which dates from the 1960’s.

The European Commission accepted the company’s application to receive their financial support for the purchase on Jan. 27. 2010, which means the state-owned railway company can now buy the new trains. The cost will be 1.3 billion krooni (€83 million) of which 85 percent will be paid by European Commission.

Estonian Railways current set of trains have been in use since the 1960s.

Either Stadler Bussnang AG from Swizterland, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A. from Spain or Alstom Transport Germany GmbH from Germany will manufacture the trains, which will be decided Feb.15. Criteria for selection includes is the delivery time — the manufacturer will have 46 months to transfer all trains to Estonian Railway.

According to Riho Seppar, a board member of Estonian Railways, the first train should arrive by the end of 2012 or in the beginning of 2013 to be tested in the vicinity of Tallinn for six months. If everything goes well, then rest of the trains should arrive in another six months.

The current fleet of communist-era trains have been in use since 1966, undergoing some renovations.

“As it is important to develop the train’s comfort for the commuters, and to attract people to use public transportation and the speed to get from one place to another is also important,” Seppar told Baltic Reports. “The trains today do not enable that.”