On September 12, 1861, the first independent railway line in the territory of Latvia, which connected Riga with Daugavpils, was handed over for general use.

The Nord Express international train line was introduced to Riga in 1923, and provides a connection to Berlin and Paris, with a separate Riga–Moscow detour available.

By 1940, 840-kilometre (520 mi) of new railway lines are built, more than 200 iron bridges are constructed, as well as 130 new station buildings, while infrastructure destroyed during the war was completely restored.

After the Soviet re-occupation of the Baltic states, in the period until 1950, the railway industry was completely revived in key areas and a period of development began, which included electrification of railways on suburban passenger routes, construction of new bridges, transition to diesel cargo trains and long-distance passenger transport, improvement of rolling stock safety, etc.

Along with the development of Ventspils Port and the USSR industrialization policy in general from the 1960s to the 1980s, the volume of cargo transportation grows rapidly in the coming years.

Electric and diesel trains manufactured in Riga by RVR run on all suburban and local traffic routes, serving more and more passengers.

After the restoration of Latvian independence in 1991, on 1 January 1992 the supervision and operation of all public railways in the territory of Latvia was transferred to the state enterprise (v/u) Latvijas dzelzceļš.

At this moment, the restored Latvian state-owned company has at its disposal 2,364 kilometres (1,469 mi) of railway lines and 23,000 employees.

In accordance with the restructuring program of the state-owned joint-stock company, the first subsidiary of the Latvijas dzelzceļš Group – Pasažieru vilciens, was established in 2001 as the LDz's passenger services division.

In accordance with the amendments to the Law on Railways of the Republic of Latvia, in order to ensure the essential functions of the infrastructure manager within the Latvijas dzelzceļš Group, joint-stock LatRailNet was established in 2010.

The vision of the Latvijas dzelzceļš Group is to become an efficient, competitive company providing high added value to customers by responding flexibly to changes in the transport sector.

Latvijas dzelzceļš is one of the largest employers in Latvia – employees who have been working for the company for several generations are its foundation.