Latvia is one of the three Baltic states, which gained independence in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Latvia lies by the Baltic Sea and it borders on Estonia in the North, Russian and Byelorussian in the East, and Lithuania in the South. The lenght of its sea borber is 494 kilometres, and the length of the land border is 1 196 kilometres.

Latvia has a wide network of transport lines which insures not only the inland but also the transit transport. The lenght of the tranpost lines in the last 10-15 years has changed a little. In 1993 the lenght of transport lines was as follows: Public railways lines 2 400 km, roads 60 100 km, inland waterways 100 km, oil product mains 700 km and gas-mains 1 200 km.

The analysis of the tables shows that considering the tranportation of goods and passengers their transportation along roads is the most significant one. However, in the period of 1990 - 1993 transportation of goods along roads has decreased 10 times, but transportation along railroad - only 2.7 times. The reason for taht are the relatively low transportation tariffs and slow rate of their growth. But the forecast says that in 1994 the situation will change considerably due to the fast growth of the tariffs considerably due to the fast growth the tariffs for railroad transpotation (25 times).