Oldest railways
The oldest railways still running
519 lines · 55 countries · all opened before 1900
Open the oldest of them on the world railway map →Every railway on this page opened before 1900 and still carries a scheduled passenger train today. The oldest is the Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway of 1830; 35 of them were running before 1850, when the railway itself was barely twenty years old. One thing to read carefully before the ranking: the year dates the RAILWAY, not the train. Alvia appears here because the high-speed service runs over an alignment opened in 1866, not because anyone ran a high-speed train in the nineteenth century. That is the whole interest of the list — a great deal of modern European travel happens on earthworks surveyed before photography was common.
| # | Country | Railway | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇫🇷 France | Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway Saint-Étienne – Lyon | 1830 |
| 2 | 🇺🇸 United States | Strasburg Rail Road Strasburg – Paradise | 1832 |
| 3 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Caernarfon – Blaenau Ffestiniog | 1836 |
| 4 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | Intercity Antwerp – Brussels | 1836 |
| 5 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | Intercity Brussels – Ostend | 1838 |
| 6 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Avanti West Coast London – Birmingham | 1838 |
| 7 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Tyne Valley Line Newcastle – Carlisle | 1838 |
| 8 | 🇨🇿 🇦🇹 Czechia | Railjet Prague – Vienna | 1839 |
| 9 | 🇫🇷 France | Lutterbach–Kruth line Lutterbach – Kruth | 1839 |
| 10 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Hull Trains London – Hull | 1840 |
| 11 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Cardiff–Portsmouth Cardiff – Portsmouth | 1841 |
| 12 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Great Western Main Line London – Bristol | 1841 |
| 13 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Brighton Main Line London – Brighton | 1841 |
| 14 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | Intercity Brussels – Liège | 1842 |
| 15 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Edinburgh–Glasgow Express Glasgow – Edinburgh | 1842 |
| 16 | 🇮🇹 Italy | Livorno–Florence railway Livorno – Florence | 1844 |
| 17 | 🇩🇪 Germany | Augsburg–Nördlingen railway Nördlingen – Augsburg | 1844 |
| 18 | 🇨🇿 🇵🇱 Czechia | EN Slovakia / Chopin Prague – Warsaw | 1845 |
| 19 | 🇩🇪 Germany | ICE Hamburg – Berlin | 1846 |
| 20 | 🇩🇪 Germany | Main-Neckar Railway Heidelberg – Frankfurt | 1846 |
| 21 | 🇩🇪 🇵🇱 Germany | EC Wawel Berlin – Przemyśl | 1846 |
| 22 | 🇵🇱 Poland | IC Kraków–Wrocław Kraków – Wrocław | 1847 |
| 23 | 🇫🇷 France | Nomad Krono Paris – Le Havre | 1847 |
| 24 | 🇩🇪 Germany | Palatine Ludwig Railway Mannheim – Saarbrücken | 1847 |
| 25 | 🇮🇪 Ireland | InterCity Dublin – Limerick | 1848 |
What is the oldest railway still carrying passengers?
In this atlas it is the Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway, which opened in 1830 and runs between Saint-Étienne and Lyon. 519 lines here opened before 1900 and still have a scheduled passenger service.
Does the year mean the train or the railway?
The railway. Each line is dated by the year the route itself opened, not the year the operator invented the brand that runs on it now — which is why a modern service can appear with a nineteenth-century date, for example Alvia, a high-speed service on an alignment opened in 1866. The train is new; the railway under it is not.
Which country has the most pre-1900 railways still in service?
Germany, with 73 of the 519 lines listed here. In total 55 countries have at least one railway that opened before 1900 and still carries passengers.
How many of these railways predate 1850?
35. Railways were barely twenty years old in 1850, so the survivors from that decade are the first generation of public railways anywhere — and every one of them is still in the timetable.
Every pre-1900 railway, by country
All 519 lines, grouped by the country they start in and listed oldest first.
🇩🇿 Algeria
- Algiers–Oran Express
Algeria’s flagship inter-city: bimodal Coradias run the 1871 French-built mainline through the Chélif valley, Algiers to Oran in an afternoon.
Wikipedia ↗ - Algiers–Constantine Express
East across the high plains of Sétif to Constantine, the “city of bridges” strung over the Rhumel gorge. Algeria’s grandest station approach.
Wikipedia ↗
🇦🇷 Argentina
- Tren a Mar del Plata
Rails reached the great Atlantic beach resort in 1886; today Chinese-built coaches cross 400 km of pampas from Constitución, packed with summer crowds.
Wikipedia (ES) ↗ - Tren de las Sierras
Revived in 2007, this 1889 line climbs the Punilla valley past Lake San Roque, carrying refurbished ex-Portuguese railcars up into the Sierras de Córdoba.
Wikipedia ↗
🇦🇺 Australia
- Cockle Train
Rides Australia’s oldest steel-railed public route, opened in 1854 with horse haulage to link Murray riverboats to the sea.
Wikipedia ↗ - Blue Mountains Line
Climbs from near sea level to 1,017 m at Katoomba through a UNESCO-listed maze of sandstone cliffs and eucalypt canyons.
Wikipedia ↗ - Zig Zag Railway
A 19th-century engineering marvel in the Blue Mountains: trains reverse down a rock-cut Z of sandstone viaducts that once carried the main western line off the plateau.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pichi Richi Railway
The original Ghan route through Pichi Richi Pass: 1879 stonework, volunteer-run steam and the 1928 “Barwell Bull” railcar to quaint Quorn.
Wikipedia ↗ - The Overland
Running since 1887 as the Intercolonial Express, Australia’s oldest interstate rail journey now crosses the Wimmera wheat belt twice weekly.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kuranda Scenic Railway
Navvies hand-carved 15 tunnels and 37 bridges up Barron Gorge in the 1880s; trains still pause at the falls’ lookout above the rainforest.
Wikipedia ↗ - The Gulflander
“From nowhere to nowhere” once a week: the 1891 Gulf line’s hollow steel sleepers shrug off every wet-season flood; the old railmotor just keeps going.
Wikipedia ↗ - West Coast Wilderness Railway
The 1896 copper railway hauls itself up 1-in-16 grades on Abt rack cogs, steaming once more from Queenstown’s bare hills into the King River rainforest.
Wikipedia ↗
🇦🇹 Austria
- REX Wien–Bratislava
Europe’s closest capital pair, an hour apart on the 1848 Marchegg line across the Morava floodplain — two countries, one commuter corridor.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Semmeringbahn
The world’s first true mountain railway (1854) and a UNESCO site: 16 viaducts built before the age of dynamite.
Wikipedia ↗ - EC Wien–Ljubljana
The EuroCity to Slovenia on the 1857 Southern Railway: over the Semmering to Graz, the Drava at Maribor, then the Sava valley into Ljubljana.
Wikipedia ↗ - Railjet · Deutsches Eck
Tyrol to Salzburg the fast way — through Bavaria: Austrian expresses cut the German corner nonstop via Rosenheim, Alps on the horizon the whole run.
Wikipedia ↗ - Salzkammergutbahn
Austria’s lake district by rail: from Attnang-Puchheim along the Traunsee past the imperial spa of Bad Ischl to the shore opposite Hallstatt, the picture-postcard village mirrored in its emerald lake.
Wikipedia ↗ - REX Wien–Sopron
Vienna into Hungary the old imperial way: Wiener Neustadt, the Ödenburg plain, and GySEV’s green-and-yellow home town of Sopron.
- Railjet Wien–Venezia
One seat Vienna to Venice: over the Semmering, through the new Koralm tunnel to Klagenfurt and Villach, then the 1879 Pontebbana across the Julian Alps.
Wikipedia (IT) ↗ - Railjet Vienna–Bregenz
The full west-bound railjet: Salzburg, Innsbruck, the Arlberg tunnel and out at the Bodensee — Austria end to end in one train.
Wikipedia ↗ - Achenseebahn
Europe’s oldest still-working steam cog railway: its four 1889 locomotives haul open carriages up to the turquoise Achensee.
Wikipedia ↗ - Steyrtal-Museumsbahn
Austria’s oldest 760 mm line (1889): ÖGEG steam ambles down the green Steyr valley from Steyr Lokalbahnhof to Grünburg on summer weekends — Bosnian gauge as it began.
Wikipedia ↗ - Erzbergbahn
The “Semmering of the ore”: a heritage line over the 1,204 m Präbichl pass under the terraced Erzberg, the ochre iron mountain worked for over 1,300 years.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - FestungsBahn Salzburg
Austria’s oldest funicular in service (1892) rises into Hohensalzburg — one of Europe’s largest intact medieval fortresses — in 54 seconds.
Wikipedia ↗ - Schafbergbahn
Austria’s steepest steam rack railway climbs 1,190 m in 40 minutes to a summit overlooking eleven Salzkammergut lakes.
Wikipedia ↗ - Schlossbergbahn Graz
Up the Schlossberg through the trees since 1894, from the Mur embankment to the clock tower above Graz’s red roofs.
Wikipedia ↗ - Murtalbahn
Austria’s second-longest narrow gauge (1894) follows the young Mur 64 km from Unzmarkt to Tamsweg — 70 km/h diesels on weekdays, steam specials all summer.
Wikipedia ↗ - Schneebergbahn
Austria’s highest railway: the red Salamander cog train grinds 1,200 vertical metres from Puchberg to the Hochschneeberg terminus at 1,795 m, the Alps’ balcony over the Vienna basin.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pinzgauer Lokalbahn
A 760 mm-gauge valley line follows the Salzach past Hohe Tauern peaks to Krimml, ending beneath Austria’s highest waterfall.
Wikipedia ↗
🇧🇾 Belarus
- Minsk–Brest Business Class
Follows the old Moscow–Warsaw corridor to Brest, the fortress city on the Bug where Belarus’s broad gauge meets the EU frontier.
Wikipedia ↗ - Minsk–Gomel Regional Express
Links the capital with Gomel, Belarus’s second city near the Ukrainian border and the fringe of the Chernobyl zone.
Wikipedia (BE) ↗
🇧🇪 Belgium
- Intercity
Traces the route of continental Europe’s first passenger railway of 1835 and ends under the vast domed railway cathedral of Antwerpen-Centraal.
Wikipedia (NL) ↗ - Intercity
One of Belgium’s original 1838 trunk lines, running dead-flat across Flanders through Ghent and Bruges to the North Sea ferry port of Ostend.
- Intercity
Terminates beneath Santiago Calatrava’s soaring white vault of steel and glass at Liège-Guillemins, one of Europe’s boldest modern stations.
Wikipedia (NL) ↗ - Chemin de Fer à Vapeur des Trois Vallées
Steam on the 1854 Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse line: CFV3V engines bark up the wooded Viroin valley to the great museum shed at Treignes.
Wikipedia ↗ - Intercity
Climbs from Brussels through the forested Ardennes via Namur and Arlon; planned upgrades aim to cut the three-hour run to Luxembourg below two hours by 2030.
- Liège–Maastricht railway
Down the Meuse from Liège to Maastricht, a cross-border run open since 1861 and now worked by Arriva's Dutch regional trains.
Wikipedia ↗ - IC Antwerpen–Hasselt
An hour east from the Scheldt to the Demer: out of Antwerp through Lier, then Heist-op-den-Berg and Diest across the Campine to Hasselt, on rails joined up in the 1860s.
- Line 166 (Athus–Meuse)
Up the Meuse and over the Ardennes from Dinant to Bertrix — passenger trains on the Athus–Meuse freight road between Antwerp and Basel.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Kusttram
The world’s longest tram line: 67 km of metre-gauge track hugging the entire Belgian coast from De Panne to Knokke, calling at 68 stops.
Wikipedia ↗
🇧🇷 Brazil
- Plano Inclinado Gonçalves
Built in 1874 with Esslingen machinery, Salvador’s cliff-face inclined plane still links the Comércio to UNESCO-listed Pelourinho, free of charge.
Wikipedia (PT) ↗ - Maria Fumaça (VFCJ)
Brazil’s flagship steam railway: ABPF volunteers fire century-old locomotives up the 1875 Mogiana trunk from Campinas to Jaguariúna every weekend.
Wikipedia (PT) ↗ - Maria Fumaça de Tiradentes
Baldwin steam locomotives have worked this 76 cm-gauge line ever since Emperor Pedro II opened it in 1881.
Wikipedia ↗ - Trem do Corcovado
Brazil’s first electrified railway (1884): a rack train climbing 700 m through Tijuca rainforest to Christ the Redeemer above Rio.
Wikipedia ↗ - Serra Verde Express
Down the Serra do Mar through Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest: an 1885 line of viaducts pinned to green cliffs.
Wikipedia (PT) ↗ - Bonde de Santa Teresa
Latin America’s oldest electric tramway (1896) rattles across the Carioca Aqueduct’s arches and up Santa Teresa’s cobbled lanes high above downtown Rio.
Wikipedia ↗
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
- Ruse–Kaspichan railway
The first railway ever built in Bulgaria, opened on 7 November 1866 from the Danube quays at Ruse toward the Black Sea — still line 9 of the national network.
- BDŽ Fast Train Plovdiv
Bulgaria’s busiest intercity corridor, being rebuilt for 200 km/h, tying the capital to Plovdiv, one of Europe’s oldest cities.
Wikipedia (BG) ↗ - BDŽ Fast Train Burgas
Runs via Plovdiv and Stara Zagora to Burgas, the port at the heart of Bulgaria’s southern Black Sea beaches.
- BDZ Fast Train
Capital to the Danube: through the Iskar gorge, across the Pleven plain, down to Ruse’s Habsburg-flavoured riverfront and the bridge to Romania.
- BDŽ Fast Train Varna
Crosses the Balkan range and the Danubian plain to Varna, Bulgaria’s summer capital on the Black Sea coast.
Wikipedia (BG) ↗
🇨🇦 Canada
- Old Quebec Funicular
Scaling Cap Diamant at 45 degrees since 1879, it links Petit-Champlain’s boutiques to Dufferin Terrace beside the Château Frontenac.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sudbury–White River
Canada’s last Budd RDC mainline train will flag-stop anywhere along 484 km of roadless Canadian Shield.
Wikipedia ↗ - VIA Jonquière
A flag-stop wilderness train: nine hours through Laurentides lake country few roads reach, to the Saguenay fjord railhead of Jonquière.
Wikipedia ↗
🇨🇱 Chile
- Ascensor Concepción
Valparaíso’s oldest ascensor (1883) began on water ballast and still hoists riders 69 m from the Turri clock up to Paseo Gervasoni.
Wikipedia ↗
🇭🇷 Croatia
- EuroCity “Sava”
The EC “Sava” restored a direct Zagreb–Ljubljana run, and since June 2025 extends once a week onward to Pula for the first time in 30 years.
Wikipedia ↗ - Zagreb–Rijeka line
Climbs through the forested Gorski Kotar highlands, through tunnels and curves before the steep final plunge to the Adriatic at Rijeka.
Wikipedia ↗ - Zagreb Funicular (Uspinjača)
At 66 m one of the world’s shortest public funiculars, linking Zagreb’s Lower and Upper Towns since 1890.
Wikipedia ↗ - Zagreb–Osijek line
Runs east across the flat Pannonian farmland of Slavonia to Osijek, Croatia’s fourth-largest city, on the Drava near the Hungarian border.
- Zagreb–Vinkovci
East across Slavonia on the old Zagreb to Belgrade main line: out through Dugo Selo, the Sava plain by Novska and Slavonski Brod, then the oak country beyond Đakovo to Vinkovci.
🇨🇿 Czechia
- Railjet
Follows the Habsburg Empire’s first steam railway of 1839. Prague, Brno and Vienna strung like pearls.
Wikipedia ↗ - EN Slovakia / Chopin
Overnight between two capitals: out of Prague past Pardubice and Olomouc, over the border to Katowice, then the fast Central Trunk line into Warsaw by breakfast.
- Praha–Cheb Express
Heads west through Plzeň, birthplace of Pilsner lager, to the spa-country town of Cheb near the German border.
Wikipedia (CS) ↗ - Plzeň–České Budějovice Railway
The rychlík between Pilsner country and Budweiser country: 136 km through the wooded south Bohemian hills via Strakonice, on rails laid in 1868.
Wikipedia (CS) ↗ - R10 Krakonoš
Rychlík from Prague across the Elbe lowlands to Hradec Králové, then up the foothills to Trutnov beneath the Krkonoše mountains.
Wikipedia (CS) ↗ - RegioJet R8
RegioJet’s yellow trains on the R8: through the Moravian Gate via Přerov, on rails the Nordbahn laid toward Bohumín in 1847.
Wikipedia (CS) ↗ - České dráhy Express
A winding cross-country run to the grand colonnades of Karlovy Vary, the Bohemian spa where Goethe, Beethoven and half of Europe’s royalty took the waters.
Wikipedia ↗ - Jižní expres
Czechia’s first 200 km/h running: the rebuilt Fourth Corridor past Tábor’s Hussite hilltop to the Budweiser city, a record 85 minutes on the fastest Pendolinos.
Wikipedia (CS) ↗ - Summerauerbahn
The Summerauerbahn: out of Budweis, over the granite hills where Europe’s first horse-drawn railway ran, down the Mühlviertel to the Danube at Linz.
Wikipedia (CS) ↗ - R16 Praha–Železná Ruda
Prague to the edge of the Bohemian Forest, ending at a station shared with Bavaria across the border; the 1877 climb to it bored the Špičák tunnel, longest in the Czech lands for 130 years.
- Ex7 Praha–Český Krumlov
A direct express from Prague to the UNESCO town inside the Vltava’s double bend, over rails laid in 1891 to carry Schwarzenberg timber and graphite rather than tourists.
- Šumava Railway
The Šumava forest railway: out of Budějovice, past Český Krumlov’s castle bend, along Lake Lipno and up into the Bohemian Forest at Volary.
Wikipedia (CS) ↗ - Jindřichův Hradec–Nová Bystřice Narrow Gauge
South Bohemia’s narrow-gauge survivor, rescued by a new operator in 2026 after the original company’s 2022 bankruptcy nearly ended the line.
Wikipedia ↗ - Osoblažka
Czechia’s last public narrow gauge: 760 mm and 102 curves in 20 km — including the network’s sharpest at 75 m radius — dawdling across Silesia at 40 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗
🇩🇰 Denmark
- Langå–Struer railway
Central Jutland end to end: single track opened section by section from 1863, Langå to Viborg to Skive to the fjord port at Struer.
Wikipedia ↗ - DSB InterCity
DSB’s long haul up Jutland, crossing the Great Belt Fixed Link, to Aalborg, gateway to Denmark’s north.
- DSB InterCity
Runs west to Esbjerg, Denmark’s North Sea port and the historic embarkation point for steamers and emigrants to Britain.
- Lollandsbanen
Opened in 1874 and still crossing Lolland from Nykøbing Falster through Maribo to the shipyard town of Nakskov.
Wikipedia ↗ - Thy Line
Denmark's north-west corner by rail: 73 km from the fjord port of Struer through Thy to Thisted, open since 1882.
Wikipedia ↗ - Skagen Line (Skagensbanen)
Runs to Denmark’s northernmost station through dune plantations to the sand-blown artists’ town where two seas meet at Grenen.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kystbanen
The Sound coast line of 1897, one of Denmark's busiest: Copenhagen out past the Øresund beaches to Elsinore and Kronborg.
Wikipedia ↗ - Frederiksværk Line
North Zealand branch line: Hillerød to Frederiksværk from 1897, on to the Kattegat ferry harbour at Hundested from 1916.
Wikipedia ↗
🇨🇩 DR Congo
- Matadi–Kinshasa
Reopened in September 2025 after a five-year landslide closure, now worked at weekends by KiHa 183 railcars shipped from Japan, relinking Kinshasa to its Atlantic port.
Wikipedia ↗
🇪🇬 Egypt
- Alexandria–Aswan Express
One seat, the whole of Egypt: from the Mediterranean up Africa’s oldest main line, waking to palms, feluccas and temples along the Nile to Aswan.
- Talgo Intercity
Cairo–Alexandria is the oldest railway in Africa and the Middle East (1854–56); since December 2022 it has been worked by Spain’s Talgo 230 trainsets.
Wikipedia ↗ - Nile Valley Sleeper
Overnight up the Nile past Luxor’s temples: wake to feluccas and the First Cataract at Aswan.
🇪🇪 Estonia
- Elron
Runs east to Narva on the Russian frontier, where two medieval castles face off across the border river.
Wikipedia ↗ - Tallinn–Paldiski railway
Estonia's oldest railway west from Tallinn, opened in 1870 to the ice-free naval harbour at Paldiski on the Baltic.
Wikipedia (ET) ↗ - Elron
Estonia’s busiest intercity run: orange Stadler FLIRTs linking Tallinn with Tartu, the country’s ancient university city.
Wikipedia ↗ - Elron
How Estonian trains reach Latvia: the Baltic Railway’s 1887 branch to Valga, built to meet the Riga line, and the Riga train still runs on it.
Wikipedia (ET) ↗
🇫🇮 Finland
- Riihimäki–Lahti railway
Opened in 1869 as the first stretch of the Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway, and still the connection from the Helsinki main line east to Lahti.
Wikipedia (FI) ↗ - Porvoo Museum Railway
Summer museum trains out of Helsinki: a 1950s Dm7 “flat-hat” railbus leaves the main line at Kerava for the 1874 branch to Porvoo’s wooden old town.
Wikipedia (FI) ↗ - Turku–Toijala railway
Finnish 1,524 mm gauge across Southwest Finland and Häme, joining the port of Turku to the Helsinki–Tampere main line at Toijala since 1876.
Wikipedia ↗ - Haapamäki–Seinäjoki railway
The middle section of the old Tampere–Vaasa railway of 1882, still carrying the diesel run west from the junction at Haapamäki.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterCity
Fourteen direct ICs a day to Finland’s sunniest city, down the Ostrobothnian flats to Vaasa and the UNESCO Kvarken archipelago.
Wikipedia (FI) ↗ - VR InterCity
The Savo line threads through Finland’s lake district to Kuopio, water rarely out of sight; InterCitys continue north to Iisalmi and Kajaani.
Wikipedia (FI) ↗ - Kouvola–Kotka railway
Opened in 1890 down the Kymi river to the Gulf of Finland, ending on the quays of the port of Kotka.
Wikipedia ↗ - VR InterCity
A double-deck InterCity east along the Karelian line to Joensuu, gateway to Finland’s forested North Karelia.
Wikipedia (FI) ↗ - Tampere–Pori railway
Opened in 1895 and following the Kokemäenjoki river down to the Gulf of Bothnia, with only five intermediate stations in 132 km.
Wikipedia ↗ - Haapamäki–Jyväskylä railway
Single track east from the Haapamäki junction to Jyväskylä, opened in 1897 through the lakes of central Finland.
Wikipedia (FI) ↗ - Jokioinen Museum Railway
The last stretch of Finland’s once-extensive 750 mm network, run by volunteers with steam engines from Finnish, German, Soviet and Belgian builders, veterans of the country’s vanished narrow-gauge lines.
Wikipedia ↗
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🇫🇷 France
- Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway
Continental Europe's first railway line, built by Marc and Camille Seguin between 1828 and 1833 to bring Loire coal down to the Rhône.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lutterbach–Kruth line
Up the Thur valley from Mulhouse through Thann to Kruth in the high Vosges, worked by SNCF trains and the Mulhouse tram-train together.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Nomad Krono
The Impressionists’ line down the Seine: Vernon for Giverny, Rouen’s spires, and the ferro-concrete UNESCO city at the river’s mouth.
Wikipedia ↗ - Metz–Strasbourg
Lorraine to Alsace under the Vosges foothills, through Sarrebourg and the Saverne gap — the historic Paris–Strasbourg corridor’s eastern half.
- Intercités
The Bourbonnais line to the Auvergne volcanoes; new Oxygène trainsets arrive from 2026 to retire its veteran Corail carriages.
Wikipedia ↗ - Intercités
The cross-country POLT line, Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse, runs 713 km through the Massif Central on France’s classic north–south artery.
Wikipedia ↗ - Intercités
The great southern transversale, Atlantic to Mediterranean with no Paris detour: Garonne vineyards, Carcassonne’s citadel and the Sète lagoons on the slow way round to Marseille.
Wikipedia ↗ - Coutras–Tulle line
Single track, never electrified, opened piece by piece from 1857: the cross-country link between the Paris–Bordeaux and Orléans–Montauban main lines.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Reims-Laon railway
52 km across the Champagne vineyards and the Chemin des Dames country, from Reims to the cathedral on the hill at Laon.
Wikipedia ↗ - Amiens–Laon railway
Double track the whole way and still without wires, running east from Amiens through Tergnier to the hill town of Laon since 1857.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Caen–Le Mans–Tours
Normandy to the Loire without touching Paris: the cross-country line through Alençon and Le Mans that the TGV network forgot.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Reims–Dijon
Champagne to Burgundy behind the front: Châlons, Chaumont’s viaduct and the Langres plateau, four departements of France nobody flies over.
- Nomad Krono+
Normandy’s trunk from Saint-Lazare: Lisieux, Caen and Bayeux of the Tapestry, out along the Cotentin to the great naval harbour of Cherbourg.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Intercités de Nuit
The Aveyron sleeper: off the Limoges main line at Brive, then Rocamadour, the Lot valley and Rodez by breakfast — Albi through-cars on weekends.
Wikipedia ↗ - Neuchâtel–Pontarlier railway
The Franco-Suisse line of 1860 through the Val-de-Travers, single track over the Jura from Pontarlier down to the Neuchâtel lakeshore.
Wikipedia ↗ - Figeac–Arvant railway
170 km of single unelectrified track across the Massif Central, tying the Brive–Toulouse main line to the Cévennes line at Arvant.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Limoges–Périgueux railway
An 1861 line across the Limousin plateau, one stop in 99 km between the porcelain city of Limoges and Périgueux in the Dordogne.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Nantes–Quimper
South Brittany strung together: Redon, the Gulf of Morbihan at Vannes, Lorient and the Odet valley into Quimper.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Rennes–Redon railway
The 1862 line down the Vilaine from Rennes to Redon, the shared first leg of Brittany's runs to Nantes and to Quimper.
Wikipedia ↗ - Niversac–Agen railway
A slow country line opened in 1863: three and a half hours for 164 km from the Garonne at Agen up through the Périgord to the Périgueux junction at Niversac.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Rennes–Saint-Malo railway
Brittany's run to the sea: 81 km from Rennes to the walled port of Saint-Malo, opened in 1864 and now covered non-stop in three quarters of an hour.
Wikipedia ↗ - Valence–Moirans railway
Built by the PLM and opened on 9 May 1864 to join Valence to Grenoble, double track over two thirds of its length and electrified in the 2010s.
Wikipedia ↗ - Grenoble–Montmélian railway
Built double-track by the PLM and opened on 15 September 1864 to join Grenoble to the Savoy main line; fully electrified only in December 2013.
Wikipedia ↗ - Montluçon–Saint-Sulpice-Laurières line
An 1864 cross-country line over the western edge of the Massif Central, from the Paris–Toulouse main line at Saint-Sulpice-Laurière to Montluçon.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Mouchard–Bourg-en-Bresse railway
Part of the Mulhouse–Besançon–Lyon route: a demanding northern section of climbs and falls through the Jura before it runs out onto the Bresse plain.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Lunéville–Saint-Dié line
Fifty km of electrified single track up the Meurthe into the Vosges — never doubled, because unlike its neighbours it carried no strategic traffic.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Clermont–Lyon
Across the top of the Massif Central: volcano country out of Clermont, the Gorges over Roanne, then down into the Rhône at Lyon.
- Intercités de Nuit
The Pyrenean pilgrim night train: out of Austerlitz every evening on the classic line through Poitiers and Dax, waking beneath the mountains at Lourdes.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Toulouse–Bayonne railway
Runs the whole width of the south-west along the foothills of the Pyrenees, opened in stages between 1861 and 1867 and still the direct way from the Atlantic to Toulouse.
Wikipedia ↗ - Angoulême–Saintes line
Down the Charente from Angoulême toward Saintes and the Atlantic, opened in 1867 through Cognac and its cellars.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Perpignan–Villefranche line
Up the Têt from the Mediterranean at Perpignan into the Pyrenean foothills, ending where the metre-gauge Train Jaune takes over at Villefranche.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Colmar–Metzeral line
Alsace's valley branch of 1868, from Colmar and its vineyards up the Fecht into the high Vosges at Metzeral.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Train Thur Doller Alsace
Sunday steam in the Doller valley: a century-old 030 T ambles from Cernay to Sentheim past storks, orchards and the first folds of the Vosges.
Wikipedia ↗ - Libourne–Le Buisson line
97 km of single track east from the Paris–Bordeaux main line into the Périgord, opened in 1869 and still the cross-country link toward Agen and Cahors.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Le Cévenol
Down the Allier gorges on viaducts stacked over a river with no road: the Massif Central crossing the TGV era forgot, kept alive by sheer beauty.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Paris–Granville Line
Paris to the Channel the Norman way: through Dreux and Argentan to the walled harbour of Granville, no TGV in sight.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Intercités
France’s great west–east diagonal, no Paris required: the Loire at Angers and Tours, Bourges’ cathedral, then Roanne and the Lyon hills.
Wikipedia ↗ - Riviera Line
The Riviera on rails: Nice, Villefranche, Monaco’s covered station, Menton lemon groves and over the border to Ventimiglia — forty minutes of Mediterranean out the right-hand window.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Delémont–Delle railway
Opened in stages from 1872 through the Jura canton — Glovelier, Porrentruy, Boncourt — and over the French border to Delle.
Wikipedia ↗ - Intercités
The Atlantic link that skips Paris: marshes of the Vendée, La Rochelle’s towers and the Charente to Bordeaux — ridership doubled, contracted to 2036.
Wikipedia ↗ - Saintes–Royan line
Half an hour down the Seudre country from Saintes to the Atlantic resort of Royan, a branch open since 1875.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Train des Mouettes
Steam at 30 km/h beside the Seudre oyster beds: an 1891 Schneider — France’s oldest working steam engine — still hauls the gulls’ train to La Tremblade.
Wikipedia ↗ - Intercités de Nuit
Asleep out of Austerlitz, awake on the Côte Vermeille: the sleeper threads Collioure, Port-Vendres and Banyuls to the last stop before Spain.
Wikipedia ↗ - Caen–Rennes
The western way round: Saint-Lô, the Vire bocage, a glimpse of Mont-Saint-Michel country at Dol, then Rennes.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Clisson–Cholet line
Follows the Sèvre Nantaise east from Clisson to Cholet, 39 km of single unelectrified track joining two north–south main lines.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Intercités de Nuit Paris–Briançon
France’s southern-Alps sleeper: lights out at Austerlitz, blinds up in the Durance valley, arrival under the Vauban walls of France’s highest city.
Wikipedia ↗ - Marseille–Briançon
The Durance valley all the way up: Aix, Sisteron’s citadel, Gap, Embrun above the lake, and the highest town in France at the buffer stops.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Ligne des Horlogers
The Watchmakers’ Line: out of Besançon and up the Doubs gorges to 1,000 m Jura plateaus, crossing into Switzerland at Le Locle for watch-capital La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme
Belle-Époque steam trains skirt the Somme estuary’s tidal salt marshes, with locomotives running round their own train at each terminus.
Wikipedia ↗ - Chemin de fer de La Mure
Reopened in 2021, this cliffside metre-gauge line hangs on ledges and viaducts high above the turquoise Monteynard reservoir in the Isère.
Wikipedia ↗ - Train de l’Aubrac
One daily train across the empty heart of France: over Garabit’s red Eiffel viaduct, the Truyère gorges and the Causses down to the Med — six hours, change at Neussargues.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Bastia–Calvi
The Trinighellu’s Balagne arm: inland from Bastia to Ponte-Leccia, then down to a beach-hugging crawl from Île-Rousse to Calvi’s citadel.
Wikipedia ↗ - Le Mastrou (Vivarais)
A metre-gauge steam survivor climbing the granite gorge of the Doux from the Rhône at Tournon to the chestnut country of Lamastre, hauled by 1903 Mallet engines.
Wikipedia ↗ - Chemins de fer de la Corse
Corsica’s beloved “U Trinichellu” crosses the island’s granite spine, piercing the 3.9 km Vizzavona tunnel at 906 m altitude.
Wikipedia ↗
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🇩🇪 Germany
- Augsburg–Nördlingen railway
Part of the Ludwig South-North Railway of 1844: fast electrified track from Augsburg to Donauwörth, then the branch on to the walled crater town of Nördlingen.
Wikipedia ↗ - ICE
Germany’s busiest city pair rides an alignment opened in 1846, dead straight across the northern plain.
Wikipedia ↗ - Main-Neckar Railway
Opened in 1846 down the Upper Rhine plain west of the Odenwald, one of Germany's oldest railways and still the local road from Frankfurt through Darmstadt and Bensheim to Heidelberg.
Wikipedia ↗ - EC Wawel
The EuroCity across Poland: Berlin and the Oder, Wrocław and Opole, the Silesian cities and Kraków, then on east to Przemyśl at the Ukrainian border.
- Palatine Ludwig Railway
The Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn of 1847, the Palatinate's main artery through Neustadt, Kaiserslautern and Homburg — and today part of the Paris–Frankfurt run.
Wikipedia ↗ - Magdeburg-Wittenberge railway
Double track and electrified across the Altmark, opened in 1849 by the Magdeburg-Wittenberge company and among the oldest railways in Germany.
Wikipedia ↗ - Südbahn
Württemberg’s Südbahn, electrified at last: Ulm’s minster to Lake Constance at Friedrichshafen, then along the shore to Lindau island.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Bad Kleinen–Rostock railway
Opened in 1850 by the Mecklenburg Railway Company and now part of the electrified main line that carries Berlin and Hamburg trains to the Baltic at Rostock.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lübeck–Lüneburg railway
Single track, unelectrified, opened in sections between 1851 and 1864 — one of Germany's oldest railways, from the Elbe salt town to the Baltic.
Wikipedia ↗ - Aachen–Mönchengladbach railway
Built by the Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort company between 1852 and 1854 — one of Germany's oldest lines, and still the freight road from the Ruhr to Belgium.
Wikipedia ↗ - Eiderstedt Line
Out along the Eiderstedt peninsula through Tönning and Garding to the North Sea beach at Sankt Peter-Ording, on track laid in 1854.
Wikipedia ↗ - Münster–Rheine railway
Double track and electrified across the Münsterland, opened by the Royal Westphalian Railway Company in 1856.
Wikipedia ↗ - IC Köln–Norddeich
DB’s seaside Intercity: down the Rhine-Ruhr, through Münster and the Emsland flats to the North Sea pier at Norddeich Mole.
Wikipedia ↗ - München–Innsbruck
The Brenner corridor’s northern approach: out of Munich, across the Inn at Rosenheim, into Tyrol at Kufstein and up the valley beneath the Karwendel wall.
- Saar Railway
The Saarstrecke of 1858–60 follows the Saar from Trier up to Saarbrücken, one of the oldest railways in Germany and still the valley's stopping service.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rhine Valley Line
Castle after castle past the Lorelei rock: the left bank of the Rhine is one long UNESCO postcard.
Wikipedia ↗ - Treuchtlingen–Würzburg railway
Opened in three sections from 1859 and one of Germany's oldest main lines, running through Franconia via Ansbach and Ochsenfurt into Würzburg.
Wikipedia ↗ - alex München–Praha
The only direct Munich–Prague train: a famously unhurried crossing of the Bavarian Forest and Bohemia while the corridor awaits its wires.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - IC Karlsruhe–Nürnberg
The cross-country IC via the 1861 Remsbahn: Stuttgart, the Rems valley vineyards, then Aalen and Crailsheim’s hills to Nuremberg.
Wikipedia ↗ - Stralsund–Berlin railway
One of the oldest railways in Western Pomerania, built from 1863 by the Berlin-Stettin company and now the fast run down from Stralsund to Berlin.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kochelsee Railway
Bavarian lakes branch of 1865: from Tutzing on the Starnberger See south to the Kochelsee under the first peaks of the Alps.
Wikipedia ↗ - Neckarelz–Osterburken railway
Opened in 1866 as part of the Baden Odenwald Railway from Heidelberg to Würzburg, now double track and electrified along the edge of the Odenwald.
Wikipedia ↗ - Brenner Railway
Munich to Verona over the first railway across the main Alpine crest (1867), still topping the open pass at 1,371 m: no summit tunnel, just a border station.
Wikipedia ↗ - Danube Valley Railway
Threads the young Danube from Ulm through Blaubeuren and Riedlingen to Sigmaringen, single-tracked and largely unelectrified — once part of the Munich–Freiburg main line.
Wikipedia ↗ - Gäu Railway
The Stuttgart end of the Gäubahn, built by the Württemberg and Baden state railways and still the through road toward Zurich.
Wikipedia ↗ - Eifelbahn
Rebuilt after the 2021 flood tore it out: Cologne into the volcanic Eifel over Gerolstein’s crags and down the Kyll gorge to Trier.
Wikipedia ↗ - Munich–Simbach railway
Opened on 1 May 1871 east from Munich through Markt Schwaben and Dorfen to Mühldorf and the Inn at Simbach — one of Germany's identified capacity bottlenecks.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Vorarlbergbahn
Vorarlberg end to end: from Lindau on Lake Constance up the Rhine valley and the Walgau to Bludenz, where the Arlberg and Montafon lines begin.
Wikipedia ↗ - Deister Railway
The Deisterbahn of 1872 skirts the wooded Deister ridge west of Hanover, now worked as a link in the city's S-Bahn.
Wikipedia ↗ - Schwarzwaldbahn
Robert Gerwig’s 1873 blueprint for mountain railways climbs about 650 m through 39 tunnels and two sweeping double loops high above Triberg.
Wikipedia ↗ - Stendal–Uelzen railway
Mostly single track yet electrified and main-line rated, crossing the Altmark from Stendal to Uelzen with Salzwedel the one town of any size on the way.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kiel–Lübeck railway
Mostly single track and still without wires, joining the only two cities in Schleswig-Holstein with more than 100,000 people.
Wikipedia ↗ - Braunschweig–Uelzen railway
The emigrants’ road: Braunschweig via Gifhorn to Uelzen, on to the America ships at Bremen and Hamburg; single track since the war, never wired, famously Germany’s most delayed line.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - IC Hamburg–Köln
Germany’s busiest conventional corridor: ports to Ruhr through Bremen, Münster and five more big cities — twice an hour, no high-speed line in sight.
Wikipedia ↗ - Regensburg–Ingolstadt railway
Single track but electrified up the Danube valley from Regensburg to Ingolstadt — with the Ingolstadt–Neuoffingen line, the Bavarian Donautalbahn.
Wikipedia ↗ - Paar Valley Railway
The Paartalbahn: 63 km of single unelectrified main line from Augsburg through Friedberg, Aichach and Schrobenhausen to Ingolstadt.
Wikipedia ↗ - Usedomer Bäderbahn
The imperial spa line: along Usedom’s beaches from Züssow over the Peene bridge to Ahlbeck’s pier, then across the border into Świnoujście.
Wikipedia ↗ - IC Gera–Düsseldorf
East Thuringia to the Rhine: Gera and Jena, Erfurt and Eisenach under the Wartburg, then Kassel, the Ruhr and Düsseldorf.
- Moselstrecke
Follows the wine-terraced Moselle past Cochem, crossing the river on the historic two-tier Alf–Bullay bridge below Germany’s steepest vineyards.
Wikipedia ↗ - Weißeritztalbahn
Germany’s oldest working public narrow gauge (1882): 750 mm steam daily through the Rabenauer Grund gorge and past Malter dam, 350 m up into the Ore Mountains to Kipsdorf.
Wikipedia ↗ - Drachenfelsbahn
Germany’s oldest rack railway (1883) climbs 220 m in eight minutes from Königswinter past Schloss Drachenburg to the Drachenfels ruin above the Rhine — Siegfried’s dragon mountain.
Wikipedia ↗ - Neumarkt-Sankt Veit–Landshut railway
Single track and unelectrified down the Vils valley from Neumarkt-Sankt Veit to the Isar at Landshut, open since 1883.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lauter Valley Railway
The Lautertalbahn follows its river out of Kaiserslautern to Lauterecken — a branch the Bundesbahn planned to close in the 1980s and never did.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lößnitzgrundbahn
Daily steam on Dresden’s doorstep since 1884: out of Radebeul’s villa streets into the wooded Lößnitzgrund, past Moritzburg’s moated hunting palace to little Radeburg.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rübelandbahn
Heritage steam storms a fierce Harz grade once worked by rack rail; the 1926 tank engine 95 027, the Bergkönigin, still climbs to the caves at Rübeland.
Wikipedia ↗ - Molli
A rare 900 mm-gauge steam line running since 1886, Molli puffs right down the middle of Bad Doberan’s tree-lined avenue on its way to the Baltic shore.
Wikipedia ↗ - RE5 Berlin–Rostock
Berlin to the Baltic in one seat: the Mecklenburg lake district at Neustrelitz and Waren, then Rostock and the ferries.
- Haller Willem
The Haller Willem climbs the Teutoburg Forest on a gradient built in 1886 — the tunnel that would have eased it was left out to save money.
Wikipedia ↗ - IC Leipzig–Warnemünde
Leipzig to the Baltic beach: Halle and Magdeburg, the Stendal cut-off and Schwerin, then Rostock and out to the pier at Warnemünde.
- Höllentalbahn
Germany’s steepest main line climbs Hell’s Valley at 55 ‰: through the Hirschsprung gorge and over the Ravenna viaduct into the high Black Forest.
Wikipedia ↗ - Selketalbahn (Harz Narrow Gauge)
Metre-gauge Mallet steam locomotives still double-head trains out of Alexisbad on this Harz valley line, opened for timber and ore in 1887.
Wikipedia ↗ - Chiemsee-Bahn
The world’s oldest steam tram still in service, an 1887 green Krauss engine that shuttles down to the Chiemsee jetty for the boat to Ludwig II’s island palace.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Borkumer Kleinbahn
Timed to the tide: Borkum’s 900 mm railway (1888) meets every ferry at the Reede pier and rolls 7 km along the dike into the North Sea island’s town.
Wikipedia ↗ - Nerobergbahn
Germany’s only surviving water-ballast funicular (1888), still climbing Wiesbaden’s Neroberg on 7,000 litres of tank water and no engine.
Wikipedia ↗ - Stralsund–Rostock railway
Joins the two Hanseatic cities of the Baltic coast — single track, electrified, and rebuilt as German Unity transport project no. 1.
Wikipedia ↗ - ICE Dortmund–Oberstdorf
The Ruhr to the Allgäu in one train: Dortmund, the Rhine gorge past the Lorelei, Mannheim and Ulm, then up the Iller valley to Oberstdorf under the Alps.
- Marktoberdorf–Füssen railway
The Allgäu branch to Füssen, opened by a private local railway in 1889 and now the train that delivers visitors below Neuschwanstein.
Wikipedia ↗ - Zittauer Schmalspurbahn
750 mm-gauge steam climbs from Zittau to the sandstone crags of the Zittau Mountains, serving the pilgrimage village of Oybin since 1890.
Wikipedia ↗ - Heidelberg Bergbahnen
Two funiculars stacked end to end: a modern car to the castle, then 1890s wooden carriages on up to the Königstuhl summit — Germany’s longest funicular climb.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sauschwänzlebahn (Wutach Valley Railway)
Germany’s only spiral railway tunnel: a 1,700 m loop at Stockhalde lets the line climb the Black Forest by circling back over itself.
Wikipedia ↗ - Preßnitztalbahn
Torn up in 1986, relaid 1992–2000 by volunteers: Saxon IV K tanks once more steam the upper Preßnitz valley from Steinbach to Jöhstadt on weekends through the year.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rasender Roland
Nicknamed the Racing Roland, this 750 mm-gauge steam railway has linked Rügen’s white-sand Baltic resorts of Binz, Sellin and Göhren since 1895.
Wikipedia ↗ - Dresden Standseilbahn
From Loschwitz villa streets to the Weißer Hirsch heights since 1895, sister to the suspension railway one valley over.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rostock–Tessin railway
What is left of the 1895 branch east of Rostock: trains still run to Tessin, while the track on to Tribsees has been lifted.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Kandertalbahn
Sunday steam up the Kandertal from the Rhine plain at Haltingen to Kandern, the 1895 branch kept running by the society that saved it.
- IC Leipzig–Norddeich
Saxony to the North Sea ferry pier: Leipzig, Magdeburg and Hannover, then Bremen and the East Frisian flats to the quayside at Norddeich Mole.
- Heath Railway
The Heidebahn crosses the Lüneburg Heath from Hanover to Buchholz — single track, no wires, and one of only two railways of any weight on the heath.
Wikipedia ↗ - Fichtelbergbahn
Saxon narrow-gauge steam, every day of the year: 750 mm VII K locomotives hauling green coaches 238 m uphill to Oberwiesenthal, Germany’s highest town.
Wikipedia ↗ - Harzquerbahn
HSB’s metre-gauge trunk across the Harz: 2-10-2 tank engines storm out of Nordhausen up the Zorge valley to Drei Annen Hohne, the junction where the Brocken steam begins.
Wikipedia ↗ - Wangerooger Inselbahn
Deutsche Bahn’s only narrow gauge: the tide writes the timetable as diesels haul ferry passengers across the salt marsh from Westanleger pier to car-free Wangerooge village.
Wikipedia ↗ - Tüßling–Burghausen railway
A short Bavarian branch to the Salzach and the longest castle complex in the world at Burghausen.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Ammersee Railway
The Ammerseebahn, single track from Mering near Augsburg past Geltendorf and the Ammersee to Weilheim under the Bavarian Alps.
Wikipedia ↗ - Brockenbahn
Metre-gauge steam still storms year-round to the 1,141 m Brocken. Goethe’s witches’ mountain, sealed off as a Soviet listening post until 1989.
Wikipedia ↗
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🇬🇷 Greece
- Katakolo–Olympia Train
Greece’s first provincial railway (1882–83) reborn as a cruise shuttle: a metre-gauge railcar links Katakolo’s quay with the sanctuary of Ancient Olympia.
Wikipedia (EL) ↗ - Palaiofarsalos–Kalambaka
The branch to the monasteries in the sky: from the junction at Palaiofarsalos across the Thessalian plain to Kalambaka, beneath the sandstone pillars of Meteora. Athens trains connect here — no through service runs.
Wikipedia ↗ - Thessaloniki–Florina
West on the 1894 Salonika–Monastir line: orchard country past Veroia, Edessa of the waterfalls, then the high lakes plateau to Florina.
Wikipedia ↗ - Odontotos Rack Railway
An 1896 rack line climbs 700 m up the sheer Vouraikos gorge to Kalavryta, through tunnels and along ledges cut above the torrent.
Wikipedia ↗ - Thrace InterCity
Greece’s only train across Thrace: 440 km laid in 1896 for the Salonika–Constantinople railway, threading the Nestos gorge between Drama and Xanthi.
Wikipedia ↗
🇭🇰 Hong Kong
- Peak Tram
Asia’s first funicular (1888), climbing almost 400 m over the Victoria Harbour skyline — four million riders a year on 6th-generation cars.
Wikipedia ↗
🇭🇺 Hungary
- IC Budapest–Szeged
Hourly ICs across the Great Plain to Hungary’s paprika capital and its vast Votive Church — the southern spoke of the MÁV intercity star.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterCity Debrecen
Hourly InterCity across the Great Hungarian Plain to Debrecen, the nation’s second city, on the 160 km/h eastern main line.
Wikipedia ↗ - EC Hornád
Budapest’s only direct reach into eastern Slovakia: the little EuroCity that grows at Miskolc, bound for Košice’s Gothic cathedral square.
- Székesfehérvár–Komárom railway
Single track and still unelectrified, running from the Danube crossing at Komárom south through the Vértes foothills to Székesfehérvár.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Balaton InterCity
Summer expresses to Siófok on the south shore of Lake Balaton, central Europe’s largest lake and Hungary’s beach playground.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Szombathely–Nagykanizsa railway
Western Hungary north to south since 1865, from the Croatian-border junction at Nagykanizsa up past Zalaegerszeg to Szombathely.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Sopron–Szombathely railway
GYSEV's own line along the Austrian border since 1865, linking Szombathely to Sopron in the corner of Hungary that voted to stay.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - EuroCity Budapest–Zagreb
The only Hungary–Croatia day train: along Balaton’s southern shore, over the Drava at Gyékényes and down through Zagorje to Zagreb.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Budavári Sikló
Opened 1870 as Europe’s second funicular; destroyed in WWII and rebuilt in 1986, it climbs to Buda Castle inside the UNESCO Danube panorama.
Wikipedia ↗ - Miskolc–Bánréve–Ózd railway
Branches off the Hatvan–Miskolc main line and runs up the Sajó through Bánréve to the steel town of Ózd, on the Slovak border.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Győr–Celldömölk railway
MÁV line 10, single track and still unelectrified, running south-west from Győr across the Kisalföld plain to the junction at Celldömölk.
Wikipedia ↗ - Székesfehérvár–Szombathely railway
Electrified but mostly single track, crossing western Hungary from Szombathely through the Bakony foothills to Székesfehérvár.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Szombathely–Szentgotthárd railway
The old Hungarian Western Railway toward Graz, now the through run from Szombathely to Szentgotthárd on the Austrian border.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Dombóvár–Bátaszék-line
The Danube–Drava branch through southern Transdanubia, single track between the junctions at Dombóvár and Bátaszék.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Győr–Sopron railway
Opened on 2 January 1876 by the Raab-Oedenburg-Ebenfurth company, and still run by its successor GYSEV rather than by MÁV.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - InterCity Pécs
InterCity to Pécs, a sun-warmed city of Roman tombs and an Ottoman mosque near the Croatian border in southern Hungary.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - EN Ister
Retraces the original 1883 Orient Express alignment through Transylvania’s castles and the Carpathian passes.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Debrecen–Füzesabony railway
Single track and unelectrified across the Great Plain, crossing the Tisza and the shallows of Lake Tisza at Tiszafüred.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Miskolc–Tornanádaska railway
Hungarian line 94, a slow branch north of Miskolc up the Bódva valley to the Slovak border at Tornanádaska.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Győr–Veszprém railway
The Bakonyvasút: a slow single track that leaves the Győr–Szentgotthárd line and climbs through the wooded Bakony hills to Veszprém.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Pápa–Csorna railway
A slow 1896 branch across the Kisalföld between the junction at Csorna and the baroque town of Pápa.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗
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🇮🇳 India
- Darjeeling Toy Train
A two-foot-gauge UNESCO marvel looping up to 2,200 m: steam engines older than the tea gardens they pass.
Wikipedia ↗ - Nilgiri Mountain Railway
India’s only rack railway: X-class steam pushes the blue coaches up 1-in-12 grades from palm plains to Ooty’s tea hills; UNESCO-listed in 2005.
Wikipedia ↗
🇮🇪 Ireland
- InterCity
Leaves the Dublin–Cork main line at Limerick Junction, a curious station where trains long had to reverse, before the final run to the Shannon at Limerick.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterCity
Heuston to Kent in 2 h 15 on Mark 4 push-pull sets, over the 1849 Great Southern and Western main line through Limerick Junction and Mallow.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterCity
Iarnród Éireann’s diesel railcars strike west across the boggy Irish Midlands, crossing the Shannon at Athlone to the Atlantic city of Galway.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterCity
Curves south-west from Dublin through medieval Kilkenny to Waterford, Ireland’s oldest city, founded by Vikings on the tidal River Suir.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limerick–Waterford
Ireland’s quiet cross-country line of 1854: a change of trains at Limerick Junction, then the Suir valley through Cahir and Clonmel to Waterford.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterCity
Ireland’s longest ride: off the Cork line at Mallow and west past Killarney’s lakes to Tralee — Kerry and the Atlantic at the end of the rails.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterCity
The old Midland Great Western route from Dublin Connolly over the drumlin lakelands to Sligo, W. B. Yeats’s country beneath flat-topped Ben Bulben.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limerick–Ballybrophy
The Nenagh branch, joined up in 1864: along the Shannon past Castleconnell’s rapids, then North Tipperary farmland through Nenagh and Roscrea to the mainline junction at Ballybrophy. Two through trains a day.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterCity
Across the midland bogs and Mayo’s drumlin country to Clew Bay: Ireland’s western rails since 1866, with Croagh Patrick rising past the buffer stops.
Wikipedia ↗ - Western Rail Corridor
The Western Rail Corridor, reopened in 2010 after 34 years: north from Limerick through Ennis and the stone-walled edge of the Burren to Galway Bay, west of the Shannon the whole way and never near Dublin.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ballina Branch
Mayo’s surviving branch: half an hour down the Moy valley from Ballina to Manulla Junction, meeting the Dublin trains on the Westport line.
Wikipedia ↗ - Dublin–Rosslare
DART territory then the wild bit: Killiney bay, Wicklow’s cliff ledge above the sea, Wexford’s quays, and the Europort at the end.
Wikipedia ↗
🇮🇲 Isle of Man
- Isle of Man Steam Railway
Victorian Beyer Peacock tanks of 1874 still haul their original carriages down 25 km of 3 ft gauge to the island’s southern tip.
Wikipedia ↗
🇮🇹 Italy
- Livorno–Florence railway
The Ferrovia Leopolda of the 1840s, still carrying Tuscany's busiest regional run from Livorno and Pisa through Pontedera and Empoli into Florence.
Wikipedia ↗ - Porrettana Express
The 1864 Porrettana was Italy’s first railway across the Apennines: E.626-hauled Centoporte coaches now relive its 26 ‰ climb from Pistoia to the spa town of Porretta.
Wikipedia (IT) ↗ - Siena–Grosseto railway
Southern Tuscany at walking pace: 100 km through the Crete Senesi and the Maremma from Siena down to Grosseto, open since 1864.
Wikipedia ↗ - Treno Natura
Steam excursions across the UNESCO Val d’Orcia: 51 km of cypress avenues, clay badlands and Brunello vineyards on an 1865 branch kept alive purely for the Treno Natura.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bari–Taranto railway
104 km across the Murge plateau from Bari through Gioia del Colle to Taranto, now covered end to end by Frecciarossa in a little over an hour.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rome–Ancona railway
Crosses the Apennines sea to sea, from the Adriatic at Ancona through Foligno, Spoleto and Terni to Orte on the Rome main line.
Wikipedia ↗ - Intercity Tirreno
The Tyrrhenian artery the high-speed network bypasses: Maremma’s coast, Pisa, the marble Apuans and the whole Riviera di Levante into Genoa.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ionian Coast Line
Regional trains run the Ionian shore below Mount Etna, calling at Taormina-Giardini before the Baroque port of Siracusa.
Wikipedia (IT) ↗ - Pustertalbahn
Follows the Puster Valley below the Dolomites from the Brenner line at Fortezza past Bruneck and the Three Peaks, crossing into Austria at Innichen to run on to Lienz in East Tyrol.
Wikipedia ↗ - Messina–Siracusa
Sicily’s east coast end to end: out of Messina along the Ionian shore below Taormina, past Etna at Giarre and Acireale into Catania, then the salt flats and Augusta’s bay to Siracusa. Complete since 1871.
- Intercity Riviera
Down the Po plain to Genoa, then the full Italian Riviera westward: tunnel after tunnel between the mountains and the sea to San Remo and the French border at Ventimiglia.
- Frecciarossa Adriatica
Frecciarossas run the whole Adriatic seaboard: high-speed to Bologna, then the classic 1872 Adriatica within sight of the sea past Rimini, Ancona and Pescara to Bari.
Wikipedia (IT) ↗ - Cinque Terre Express
Village-hopping between tunnels where Liguria’s cliffs meet the sea. Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore in half an hour.
Wikipedia (IT) ↗ - Bolzano–Merano Railway
Half-hourly FLIRTs climb the Etsch valley between South Tyrol’s capital and the spa town of Merano, the 1881 line that feeds the Vinschgau reopening.
Wikipedia (IT) ↗ - Cagliari–Sassari
The Sardinian main line: three hours up the island’s spine through Oristano and the Campidano plain — the mainline Sardinia most visitors never know exists.
Wikipedia (IT) ↗ - Vercelli–Pavia railway
Opened in 1882–83 across the rice paddies between Piedmont and Lombardy, linking Vercelli to Pavia and the Po.
Wikipedia ↗ - Brescia–Iseo–Edolo railway
Runs the length of Lake Iseo and up the Valcamonica to Edolo under the Adamello — standard gauge, single track, unelectrified, built in stages from 1885.
Wikipedia ↗ - Trenino Verde
The Trenino Verde’s second living branch: 46 km of 950 mm track twisting off Macomer’s basalt plateau down to the palm-lined seafront at Bosa Marina.
Wikipedia ↗ - Trenino Verde
At 159 km the longest tourist railway in Italy, this narrow-gauge line climbs to 868 m through the wild Ogliastra mountains to the sea at Arbatax.
Wikipedia ↗ - Como–Brunate Funicular
Since 1894 the link between Como’s lakefront and hilltop Brunate, ’the balcony of the Alps’, climbing at up to 55% above Lake Como.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ferrovia Circumetnea
A 950 mm narrow-gauge line almost encircling Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, crossing black lava fields around Bronte and Randazzo.
Wikipedia ↗ - Irpinia Express
Closed in 2010, revived for excursions: the 1895 Ofanto-valley line threads 119 km of viaducts, vineyards and hill villages from Avellino to lonely Rocchetta junction.
Wikipedia (IT) ↗ - Transiberiana d’Italia
Italy’s “Trans-Siberian”: a heritage train over snowbound Apennine plateaus to Rivisondoli-Pescocostanzo, at 1,268 m among the country’s highest stations.
Wikipedia ↗ - Intercity Notte Rome–Palermo
Europe’s last train on a ship: the sleeper is split at Villa San Giovanni and floated across the Strait of Messina before breakfast.
🇯🇵 Japan
- Limited Express Kamui
Hokkaido’s busiest shuttle: near-hourly across the Ishikari plain to Asahikawa, the doorway to Biei’s hills and Daisetsuzan’s peaks.
Wikipedia ↗
🇱🇻 Latvia
- Vivi
The historic Riga–Dünaburg line to Daugavpils, Latvia’s second city, hard by the Lithuanian and Belarusian borders.
Wikipedia ↗ - Daugavpils–Indra railway
Unelectrified 1,520 mm single track south-east from Daugavpils to Indra — the only direct rail link between Latvia and Belarus.
Wikipedia ↗ - Jūrmala Line
Latvia’s beach train: across the Lielupe to the villas and pines of Jūrmala’s resort strip, then the bog boardwalks of Ķemeri national park.
Wikipedia ↗ - Vivi
Vivi’s new PESA railcars reach the twin border town of Valga/Valka, split between Estonia and Latvia, now a link in the Baltic capitals chain.
🇱🇹 Lithuania
- LTG Link
Hourly express between Lithuania’s two largest cities along a segment of the old St Petersburg–Warsaw Railway.
Wikipedia ↗ - Vilnius–Turmantas railway
Part of the 1862 Saint Petersburg–Warsaw railway, running north from Vilnius past Ignalina's lakes to the Latvian border at Turmantas.
Wikipedia ↗ - Vilnius–Marcinkonys railway
Another surviving arm of the Warsaw–Saint Petersburg railway, single track down through the Dzūkija pine forests to Marcinkonys.
Wikipedia ↗ - LTG Link
LTG Link’s longest domestic haul, crossing Samogitia to Klaipėda, Lithuania’s only seaport on the Baltic.
Wikipedia ↗ - Aukštaitija Narrow Gauge Railway (Siaurukas)
Weekend survivor of a 750 mm network that once ran 68 km to Panevėžys, now trundling summer tourists out to Rubikiai lake.
Wikipedia ↗
🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- Intercity
A cross-border Intercity through the wooded Éislek and the Ourthe and Amblève valleys, one of the prettiest rail rides in the Ardennes.
- Train 1900 (Fond-de-Gras Heritage Railway)
Vintage steam trains rattle through Luxembourg’s old iron-mining Minett region on track first laid in 1874 to move ore and miners.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - RE 11 Mosel
The RE 11 follows the Moselle from Luxembourg into Germany, boring through the 4.2 km Kaiser-Wilhelm-Tunnel at Cochem to bypass the river’s huge loop.
Wikipedia ↗ - TER
A short cross-border hop from Luxembourg’s Ville-Haute down to the old French steel town of Longwy, one of the busiest daily commuter runs into the Grand Duchy.
🇲🇲 Myanmar
- Yangon–Mandalay Express
Myanmar’s 1889 British-built rail spine, now covered in about 10 hours by new air-conditioned DEMU expresses.
Wikipedia ↗
🇳🇱 Netherlands
- Intercity
Double-deck VIRM Intercitys run almost the whole length of the country to Maastricht, the old Dutch city on the Meuse near the Belgian border.
- Intercity Den Helder–Nijmegen
Coast to the German border in one train: from Den Helder at the tip of North Holland through Alkmaar and Amsterdam, then Utrecht, the edge of the Veluwe and Arnhem to Nijmegen on the Waal.
- Intercity
The northbound Intercity crosses the young Flevoland polders on the Hanzelijn — the Almere–Lelystad stretch past the Oostvaardersplassen wetlands was voted the Netherlands’ most beautiful train journey by NS passengers in 2016 — then skirts the low Hondsrug ridge to Groningen in a little over two hours.
- Intercity Vlissingen
The long way to the sea: Haarlem, Leiden, The Hague and Rotterdam, then over the Hollands Diep into Zeeland and along the Scheldt through Goes and Middelburg to Vlissingen, on rails finished in 1873.
Wikipedia ↗ - Museumstoomtram Hoorn–Medemblik
A steam tram dating from 1887 still crosses North Holland’s polders and tulip fields between Hoorn and the old Zuiderzee port of Medemblik.
Wikipedia ↗ - Veluwsche Stoomtrein
The Netherlands’ biggest steam operation: wartime German Kriegsloks and a forty-strong fleet work the 1887 Veluwe country line between Apeldoorn and Dieren.
Wikipedia ↗
🇳🇿 New Zealand
- Kingston Flyer
A vintage steam service on the old Southland line by Lake Wakatipu, its 1920s Ab Pacific and wooden cars a survivor of New Zealand’s golden age of rail.
Wikipedia ↗ - Taieri Gorge Railway
Out of Dunedin’s bluestone palace of a station and into the Taieri’s schist canyon, where wrought-iron viaducts from 1889 still carry every train.
Wikipedia ↗
🇲🇰 North Macedonia
- Skopje–Gevgelija line
Follows the Vardar south and squeezes through the Demir Kapija, the “Iron Gate” gorge, on Corridor X’s run toward Greece.
Wikipedia ↗
🇳🇴 Norway
- Lokaltog L1
Crosses Oslo end to end: the 1872 Drammen Line’s original alignment out to Spikkestad at one end, Norway’s first railway of 1854 to Lillestrøm at the other.
- Oslo–Stockholm
Two Scandinavian capitals across the forests and lakes of Värmland, via Kongsvinger and Karlstad on Lake Vänern: a near-five-hour run that new open-access operators are racing to cut.
- Krøderbanen
Norway’s longest museum railway: 26 km of the 1872 Krøder line preserved whole — stations, water cranes and NSB steam between Vikersund and the lake at Krøderen.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rørosbanen
The original 1877 inland route to Trondheim: diesel country through Østerdalen’s forests to Røros, the UNESCO copper town still timber-built and soot-dark.
Wikipedia ↗ - Østfoldbanen
Vy’s RE20 traces the Østfold Line down the east shore of the Oslofjord toward the Swedish border at Halden.
Wikipedia ↗ - Oslo–Göteborg
The busiest cross-border run in Scandinavia: down Norway’s Østfold Line to the frontier at Kornsjø, then through Dalsland’s forests and lakes to Sweden’s second city; a new fast line is planned to halve the time.
- Østfoldbanen: Oslo–Ski
The original 1879 Østfold line out of Oslo, hugging the fjord shore through Nordstrand and Ljan before climbing the ridge to Ski, now the all stations companion to the Blix tunnel bored beneath it.
Wikipedia ↗ - Vestfoldbanen
RE11 starts at Eidsvoll, calls at the airport, then runs down the fjord’s west side through Tønsberg, Norway’s oldest town, to industrial Grenland.
Wikipedia ↗ - Meråkerbanen
Up the Stjørdal valley from the Trondheim fjord to the Swedish border at Storlien: freshly electrified in 2024, the northern rail gateway between Norway and Sweden toward Östersund.
Wikipedia ↗ - Østre linje
Norway’s 1882 eastern line: through the Blix tunnel to Ski in eleven minutes, then out across the grain fields and timber towns of indre Østfold, calling at Askim and Mysen on the way to Rakkestad.
Wikipedia ↗ - Gamle Vossebanen
The 1883 Voss line’s surviving loop outside Bergen: NSB 18c steam between Garnes and Midttun, bypassed by new tunnels in 1964 and kept alive by volunteers.
Wikipedia ↗ - Regiontog RE10
Threads Oslo from Drammen, calls at the airport, then follows the east shore of Mjøsa, Norway’s largest lake, north to the Olympic town of Lillehammer.
Wikipedia ↗ - Setesdalsbanen
Norway’s oldest museum railway, volunteer-run since 1964: 1890s narrow-gauge steam puffing up the Otra river from Grovane to the little terminus at Røyknes.
Wikipedia ↗
🇵🇰 Pakistan
- Subak Raftar
A fast daytime intercity up Pakistan’s historic Main Line 1, sprinting Lahore to Rawalpindi across the Chenab and Jhelum rivers.
Wikipedia ↗
🇵🇦 Panama
- Panama Canal Railway
The world’s first transcontinental railroad (1855): an hour ocean-to-ocean beside the Canal locks, skimming causeways through Gatún Lake jungle.
Wikipedia ↗
🇵🇱 Poland
- IC Kraków–Wrocław
Poland’s two great tourist cities linked across industrial Silesia on the 1847 Upper Silesian Railway — the mesh line no Warsaw-bound train covers.
- IC Poznań–Szczecin
Continuation of the Warsaw expresses to the Baltic’s big absent city: Szczecin’s Prussian boulevards and the gateway to Świnoujście.
Wikipedia ↗ - EIC Warszawa–Szczecin
Warsaw to the Oder in four and a quarter hours, on the old Prussian main line west through Poznań, then Krzyż and Stargard to Szczecin, where Poland meets the German border.
- Upper Silesian Narrow Gauge
Running since 1853 — the world’s oldest continuously operating narrow gauge: 785 mm industrial track turned heritage line across the Silesian coalfield.
Wikipedia ↗ - Wrocław–Poznań railway
Silesia to Wielkopolska via Leszno, opened in 1856 and now part of TEN-T corridor E59 from Scandinavia south to Vienna and Budapest.
Wikipedia ↗ - IC Przemyślanin
Crosses Poland to Przemyśl, the southeastern gateway where standard gauge meets Ukraine’s broad gauge, handover point for Kyiv-bound trains.
- IC Kraków–Przemyśl
The old Galician main line east: Kraków, Tarnów, Rzeszów and the fortress town of Przemyśl, last stop before Ukraine.
Wikipedia (PL) ↗ - IC Brda
The 1862 Warsaw–Bydgoszcz Railway via the brick-gothic city of Toruń, Copernicus’s birthplace, to the Brda riverside.
Wikipedia (PL) ↗ - Silesian Mountain Railway
The 1867 Silesian Mountain Railway: through Wałbrzych’s coal valleys and Jelenia Góra, climbing to nearly 700 m at Szklarska Poręba under the Karkonosze.
Wikipedia ↗ - IC Poznań–Gdynia
Across Wielkopolska and Pomerania: Gniezno’s cathedral hill, Bydgoszcz, then the Vistula crossing at Tczew and the Tri-City coast to Gdynia.
- IC Warszawa–Olsztyn
Off the Gdańsk main line at Działdowo, then through the wooded lake country via Nidzica and Olsztynek into Olsztyn, gateway to Masuria.
- Nadodrzanka
The Nadodrzanka: down the Oder valley through Głogów and Zielona Góra, the quiet 1870s corridor between Silesia and the Baltic.
Wikipedia ↗ - IC Warszawa–Lublin
The 1877 Vistula River Railroad east from Warsaw, rebuilt for 160 km/h: under two hours to Lublin’s renaissance old town.
Wikipedia (PL) ↗ - Olsztyn–Ełk railway
Across Masuria through Szczytno and Pisz — the old East Prussian line from Allenstein to Lyck, still one train's ride end to end.
Wikipedia (PL) ↗ - Kalwaria Zebrzydowska–Bielsko-Biała railway
Built as the Kaiser Ferdinand Northern Railway's Bielitz–Kalwaria local line, running through Wadowice under the Beskids.
Wikipedia (PL) ↗ - Żnin District Railway
A 600 mm minirailway from 1894 chuffing 12 km through Pałuki to the Iron Age lake fort of Biskupin — archaeologists commute by narrow gauge.
Wikipedia (PL) ↗ - Wolsztyn Steam
Europe’s last everyday steam: commuters behind a 1948 Pt47 out of the working Wolsztyn roundhouse — an ordinary ticket, an extraordinary train.
Wikipedia (PL) ↗ - Nadmorska Kolej Wąskotorowa
Opened 1896 and still packing 150,000 riders a summer: metre-gauge cars amble from Gryfice to the Baltic cliffs, Poland’s last coastal narrow gauge.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bieszczady Forest Railway
Poland’s highest narrow-gauge line, a former logging railway that now carries over 150,000 riders a year into the Bieszczady wilderness.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kraków–Zakopane
Climbs from Kraków into the Tatra Mountains on the rebuilt line to Zakopane, Poland’s highest town and winter-sports capital.
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🇵🇹 Portugal
- Intercidades
Across the Tagus and into the cork-oak Alentejo: ninety minutes from Lisbon to Évora’s Roman temple and bone chapel.
Wikipedia ↗ - Intercidades
Climbs the Beira Alta line to Guarda, Portugal’s highest city at 1,056 m, on the historic Sud Express path toward the Spanish border.
Wikipedia ↗ - Linha do Minho
Follows the Atlantic, then the Minho river, to the star-fort town of Valença, staring across the water at Spain’s Tui.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bom Jesus do Monte Funicular
The world’s oldest water-balance funicular in continuous service (1882), climbing beside the baroque stairway of UNESCO-listed Bom Jesus do Monte.
Wikipedia ↗ - Linha de Guimarães
Metre gauge until 2004, when it was rebuilt to Iberian gauge and wired: out of Porto through Ermesinde and up the Ave valley by Trofa and Santo Tirso to Guimarães, where Portugal was founded.
Wikipedia ↗ - Celta
The only train across the Portugal–Spain border in the north: down the Minho, over the Valença bridge, into Galicia — two countries, one ticket, 2 h 35.
Wikipedia (PT) ↗ - Linha do Douro
Clings to the Douro’s waterline for some 100 km on ledges blasted out in the 1880s, passing UNESCO-listed port-wine terraces at Régua and Pinhão.
Wikipedia ↗ - Linha do Oeste
A slow, winding single-track line through the vineyards and spa towns of Estremadura (Torres Vedras, Caldas da Rainha) to the Atlantic at Figueira da Foz.
Wikipedia ↗
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🇷🇴 Romania
- Oravița–Anina Railway
The “Banat Semmering” of 1863. Romania’s first mountain railway spirals through 14 tunnels and over 10 viaducts up the Aninei gorges, a masterwork of Habsburg engineering.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - InterRegio
The Moldavia main line north through Bacău and Roman to Suceava, jumping-off point for Bukovina’s painted monasteries.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - InterRegio
Wallachia to the old Moldavian capital: Romania’s busiest eastern corridor, hours of steppe and vineyards ending in university-city Iași.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - Prahova Valley Railway
Climbs the Prahova gorge past Peleș Castle at Sinaia to Predeal, Romania’s highest station at 1,032 m, under the Bucegi’s 2,500 m walls.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - InterRegio Cluj
The long haul from Bucharest over the Carpathians via Brașov and medieval Sighișoara to Cluj-Napoca, heart of Transylvania.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - InterRegio Timișoara
Follows the Danube past the Iron Gates gorge, then climbs to Timișoara, the Banat city where Romania’s 1989 revolution ignited.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - Mocănița Huțulca
Bucovina’s oldest mocănița, laid in 1888 for a Munich sawmill: the Huțulca puffs 12 km up the Moldovița valley behind a Reșița-built 764 steam engine.
- Craiova–Calafat railway
A secondary single line down to the Danube, largely unelectrified, that found new purpose when the Calafat–Vidin bridge opened the way into Bulgaria.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - Brașov–Zărnești railway
A Transylvanian branch across the Burzenland from Brașov to Zărnești, under the limestone wall of the Piatra Craiului.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - InterRegio Sibiu–Brașov
Runs under the Făgăraș Mountains, Romania’s highest, along the Olt valley between the Saxon citadels of Sibiu and Brașov.
- Bucharest–Constanța InterCity
Romania’s fastest domestic run crosses the Danube on Anghel Saligny’s 1895 bridge before new EMUs race on to the Black Sea.
Wikipedia ↗
🇷🇸 Serbia
- Belgrade–Niš Line
Serbia’s first main line squeezes through the Grdelica Gorge on stone viaducts. Corridor X’s slowest link, now rebuilding for 200 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗
🇸🇰 Slovakia
- EuroCity Hungaria corridor
The Danube-bend main line: EuroCities every two hours sweeping past Štúrovo and the great river’s knee at Visegrád into Budapest.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Košice–Prešov railway
Slovakia’s second city reached from its first: the Kaschau–Oderberg company opened the branch on 1 September 1870, north up the Hornád and off the Bohumín main line at Kysak.
Wikipedia ↗ - Košice–Humenné railway
Eastern Slovakia’s REX corridor via Trebišov toward the Vihorlat hills; the Humenné sleeper from Prague finishes on the same rails.
Wikipedia (SK) ↗ - ZSSK InterCity
Up the Váh valley, then along the 1872 Košice–Bohumín railway: the High Tatras panorama, crowned by 2,655 m Gerlach, rolls past at Poprad.
- Zvolen–Vrútky railway
Slovak line 170 through the mountains north of Zvolen: the Banská Bystrica–Dolná Štubňa section alone, built 1936–40, has 22 tunnels totalling 12.2 km.
Wikipedia (SK) ↗ - R Urpín
Named for the hill above Banská Bystrica: the southern rychlík route via Levice and Zvolen into the heart of central Slovakia.
- Zvolen–Košice railway
The southern trans-Slovak line: three hours through the karst country via Lučenec, Plešivec and Rožňava beneath medieval mining towns.
Wikipedia (SK) ↗ - Margecany–Červená Skala railway
Single track through the Slovak Ore Mountains and along the south-east flank of the Low Tatras, climbing to the spiral and viaduct at Telgárt.
Wikipedia (SK) ↗ - Bratislava–Komárno railway
Follows the Danube across the Žitný ostrov plain, and in 2012 became the first Slovak line handed over to a private operator.
Wikipedia ↗ - Štrba–Štrbské Pleso Rack Railway
Slovakia’s only cog railway climbs 430 vertical metres up a 15% rack gradient into the High Tatras on hybrid EMUs delivered in 2021.
Wikipedia ↗
🇸🇮 Slovenia
- InterCity Slovenija
SŽ’s tilting Pendolino links Slovenia’s two largest cities along the 1840s Austrian Southern Railway, weaving down the Sava and Savinja valleys.
🇿🇦 South Africa
- Southern Line
From Muizenberg the rails run on a False Bay sea wall so close to the surf that winter swells spray the carriage windows at Kalk Bay.
Wikipedia ↗ - Shosholoza Meyl Trans-Karoo
The classic Trans-Karoo run: a night and a day across the semi-desert heart of South Africa from the Highveld gold city down to Table Bay.
Wikipedia ↗
🇪🇸 Spain
- Tren de la Fresa
Hostesses in 1920s dress hand out strawberries aboard replica carriages on Spain’s second-ever railway, opened in 1851.
Wikipedia ↗ - Manzanares–Ciudad Real line
Single Iberian-gauge track across La Mancha, opened in 1861 by the MZA company and electrified today as Adif's line 522.
Wikipedia (ES) ↗ - Castejón–Alsasua railway
Iberian-gauge track up the Ebro and over into Navarre, opened in 1865 and still the Madrid–Basque Country road through Altsasu.
- Málaga–Sevilla
The slow way between Andalucía’s two great cities: up the Guadalhorce past El Chorro’s gorge, beneath the Caminito del Rey walkway, then across the campiña by Osuna and Marchena.
- Alvia
Off the high-speed line at Palencia and over the 1866 Reinosa pass — a mountain descent to the Cantabrian Sea and Santander’s curved bay.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ciudad Real–Badajoz railway
338 km west across La Mancha and the Extremadura dehesa, from Ciudad Real to the Portuguese border city of Badajoz, on track opened in 1866.
Wikipedia (ES) ↗ - Ferrocarril de Riotinto
Restored mining stock creeps along the blood-red Río Tinto through a Mars-like landscape mined for 5,000 years — Victorian steam hauls it on winter Sundays.
Wikipedia ↗ - Alvia Madrid–Salamanca
Over the Guadarrama by high-speed line, then across Castile to the golden sandstone of Salamanca in well under two hours.
Wikipedia ↗ - R11 Costa Brava Line
Regional trains skirt Costa Brava cliffs near the French border before Portbou, terminus of the line completed in 1878.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sevilla–Huelva
The 1880 MZA line west over the Guadalquivir plain and Condado vineyards to the Atlantic at Huelva, whose neo-Mudéjar terminus has stood empty since 2019 and lost its roof to a fire in 2022.
Wikipedia (ES) ↗ - Jaén–Cádiz
One train across all Andalucía: olive country at Jaén, the Guadalquivir at Córdoba and Seville, sherry country at Jerez, and the Atlantic at Cádiz.
- Jaén–Madrid
The classic climb out of Andalucía: through the Despeñaperros gorge, the old gateway pass, then straight across La Mancha to Madrid.
- Sevilla–Zafra
North out of Seville into the Sierra Morena: cork oaks and mining country by Cazalla and Llerena to the junction town of Zafra.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cremallera de Montserrat
A rack railway climbing the serrated massif to the Benedictine monastery at 720 m: the pilgrims’ way to Catalonia’s black Madonna since 1892.
Wikipedia ↗ - Mr Henderson’s Railway
Up the Serranía de Ronda from Gibraltar bay: the British-built 1892 line that is Mr Henderson’s railway proper, Algeciras to the Bobadilla plain, ending today at Antequera Santa Ana’s high-speed interchange.
Wikipedia ↗ - Almería–Granada
Across the high desert of the Hoya de Guadix: Almería’s palms to Granada by way of Moreda, through the badlands the spaghetti Westerns loved.
- Media Distancia R-3f
Three metre-gauge trains a day still thread all 119 km of the 1898 Santander–Bilbao railway, winding through green Basque and Cantabrian valleys.
Wikipedia ↗ - Linares Baeza–Almería railway
Iberian gauge from the Alcázar–Cádiz main line at Linares down through the Sierra to the Mediterranean at Almería, through the desert country the spaghetti Westerns made famous.
Wikipedia ↗
🇸🇪 Sweden
- Mälaren Line
Follows the northern shore of Lake Mälaren from Stockholm through Västerås to Örebro — double track most of the way and rebuilt for high-speed running in 2005.
Wikipedia ↗ - Skåne Line
Skånebanan links eastern and western Skåne by way of Hässleholm — an 1865 railway that only got its collective name from Banverket in 1990.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kust till kust-banan
Coast to coast across Småland: Borås, the glass country around Växjö, and Kalmar castle on the Baltic at the far end.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ystad Line
Malmö to the ferry town of Ystad across southern Scania, where the Österlen Line carries on to Simrishamn.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lennakatten
Steam from the edge of a university city: the 891 mm Lennakatten rolls 33 km through Uppland forests and lakeside summer halts to the engine sheds at Faringe.
Wikipedia ↗ - SJ Nattåg
SJ’s sleeper rolls out of Stockholm at night and wakes among the snow-clad fells of Jämtland at the Åre ski resort.
- Roslagsbanan
Sweden’s last commercial narrow-gauge railway (891 mm), still running through Stockholm’s leafy northern suburbs out to rural Kårsta.
Wikipedia ↗ - Dalabanan
To Dalarna, Sweden’s folklore heart: Lake Siljan, Leksand’s midsummer poles and the Vasaloppet town of Mora, where the Inlandsbanan begins.
Wikipedia ↗ - Blekinge Coast Line
The coast line through Skåne and Blekinge, opened in 1898 and now the Öresundståg run east to the naval city of Karlskrona.
Wikipedia (SV) ↗
🇨🇭 Switzerland
- Thur Valley Line
Switzerland's fourth-oldest railway, opened on 16 May 1855 down the Thur valley to Romanshorn, where trains once met the Lake Constance ferries.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lausanne–Vallorbe line
The climb from Lake Geneva into the Jura at Vallorbe — since 1870 the shortest rail route between Paris and Milan.
Wikipedia (FR) ↗ - Olten–Lucerne railway
Built by the Schweizerische Centralbahn and open to Lucerne since 1856 — double track, electrified, and still the fast way north to Olten and Basel.
Wikipedia ↗ - Jura Railway
The Jurabahn of 1857 follows the Birs out of Basel into the French-speaking Jura, through Delémont and the Moutier gorges down to Biel.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rheinfall railway
Named for what it passes: the 1857 line from Winterthur to Schaffhausen runs along the Rhine Falls, Europe's widest waterfall.
Wikipedia ↗ - IC 3
The approach every Glacier and Bernina rider actually takes: along Lake Zurich and the Walensee’s cliff wall to Chur, where the narrow gauge begins.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Tonkin Line
Opened in 1859 by the Ligne d'Italie, running from the Rhône at Saint-Maurice out to Lake Geneva at Le Bouveret and the French border.
Wikipedia ↗ - Glarus Line
The Glarnerlinie of 1859, single track up the Linth valley under the Glärnisch and the Tödi to the road-head at Linthal.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - IC 1
Switzerland’s flagship express and spine of the clockface timetable: Zurich to Geneva across the Mittelland, Bern and Lausanne on the way, every half hour.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Rigi Railways
Europe’s first mountain railway (1871) still ratchets up from Lake Lucerne to the Queen of the Mountains. Mark Twain rode it and wrote home about it.
Wikipedia ↗ - IC61 Basel–Interlaken
Basel to the Bernese Oberland in one seat: Olten, Bern, then the lakeside crawl past Thun and Spiez to Interlaken under the Eiger.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Biel–La Chaux-de-Fonds railway
Single track up out of Biel through the Jura gorges to the watchmaking city of La Chaux-de-Fonds at 1,000 m, worked since 1874.
Wikipedia ↗ - IR15 Bern–Luzern
The Emmental cut-through: cheese country and covered bridges between the federal city and the lake at Lucerne, hourly.
Wikipedia (IT) ↗ - EC Transalpin
One train, one panorama car, half the Alps: Zurich to Graz over the Arlberg, past Zell am See, the Ennstal and the Gesäuse gates — the day-long EuroCity people ride for the window.
Wikipedia ↗ - Winterthur–Etzwilen railway
An 1875 single track north out of Winterthur through the Thur valley wine villages to Etzwilen near the Rhine.
Wikipedia ↗ - Broye Line
Single track across Romandy's Broye valley, crossing its sister line at Payerne on the way from Lake Neuchâtel to Fribourg.
Wikipedia ↗ - Gäubahn IC
The Gäubahn intercity: over the Rhine at Schaffhausen, past the Bodensee’s back country and down the Neckar cuttings into Stuttgart.
Wikipedia ↗ - Gotthard Panorama Express
A paddle steamer up Lake Lucerne, then the 1882 Gotthard line’s spirals and the Wassen church seen thrice — summer-only, once daily, seat surcharge.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cadenazzo–Luino railway
Hugs the north-eastern shore of Lake Maggiore, crossing from Ticino into Italy on the way to Luino.
Wikipedia ↗ - Seetalbahn
Opened in 1883 by British investors down the Seetal lakes to Lucerne — for a century a roadside light railway, and rebuilt on its own alignment in the 2000s.
Wikipedia ↗ - Arlberg Railway
Eight hours Zurich to Vienna on Austria’s only east–west mountain mainline: the Trisanna gorge, Wiesberg Castle and a 1,310 m summit in the 10.2 km Arlberg tunnel.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pilatus Railway
The steepest rack railway on Earth: 48 % grades since 1889, with Locher’s horizontal cog wheels gripping a ladder no ordinary train could climb.
Wikipedia ↗ - Prättigau Line
Metre-gauge Rhaetian track climbing the Prättigau from the Rhine valley at Landquart to the high spa town of Davos, open since 1890.
Wikipedia ↗ - Monte Generoso Railway
A rack line from the shore of Lake Lugano to a 1,704 m summit whose Mario Botta “Fiore di pietra” lookout takes in the Alps from Monte Rosa to the Apennines.
Wikipedia ↗ - Berner Oberland-Bahn
Jungfrau gateway since 1890: from Interlaken Ost the BOB splits at Zweilütschinen — one arm to Lauterbrunnen, this one climbing to Grindelwald under the Eiger’s north face.
Wikipedia ↗ - Montreux–Rochers-de-Naye Railway
Climbs 1,700 m from Lake Geneva’s shore to a marmot-filled Alpine garden in under an hour, on Abt rack track dating to 1892.
Wikipedia ↗ - Brienz Rothorn Bahn
A 25% steam rack line, Europe’s highest unelectrified railway, climbs from Lake Brienz to a 2,244 m summit in an hour.
Wikipedia ↗ - Chemins de fer du Jura
Metre gauge across the Franches-Montagnes plateau: horse pastures and firs at 1,000 m from watch-town La Chaux-de-Fonds to Saignelégier, then a wooded ravine descent to Glovelier.
Wikipedia ↗ - Wengernalpbahn
The world’s longest continuous cogwheel railway links Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald over Kleine Scheidegg, under the Eiger’s north face.
Wikipedia ↗ - Schynige Platte Railway
Vintage 1914 cars grind up an Abt rack to a 2,000 m ridge, with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau lined up across the valley and an alpine garden at the top.
Wikipedia ↗ - Huttwil–Wolhusen railway
Emmental single track of 1895, running from Huttwil down to the Little Emme and the junction at Wolhusen.
Wikipedia ↗ - Gornergrat Bahn
Europe’s highest open-air railway climbs from Zermatt to 3,089 m: the Matterhorn framed in the window from the first curve to the summit ridge.
Wikipedia ↗ - Fribourg Funicular
Europe’s last funicular driven by wastewater: since 1899 the descending car is weighted with up to 3,000 litres of city sewage.
Wikipedia ↗ - Burgdorf–Thun railway
Opened in 1899 as the first electrified main-line railway in Europe, running from Burgdorf over Konolfingen to Thun.
Wikipedia ↗
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🇹🇷 Türkiye
- Tünel
Opened 1875 — the world’s second-oldest underground urban railway after London’s, and the oldest underground funicular still running.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bosfor Express
The overnight heir to the Orient Express, crossing the Thracian plain from Istanbul over the Bulgarian border to Sofia as the berths are made up.
Wikipedia ↗
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan
- Trans-Caspian Express
The historic Trans-Caspian line along the Karakum Desert’s edge, from Ashgabat to Turkmenistan’s lone Caspian port at Türkmenbaşy.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ashgabat–Türkmenabat Night Train
Down the Tsarist Trans-Caspian mainline of 1886: overnight past Merv’s ruined oasis and the Karakum sands to the Amu Darya’s banks.
Wikipedia ↗
🇺🇦 Ukraine
- Kyiv–Chernivtsi
Overnight across western Ukraine: out of Kyiv just before nine, Lviv in the small hours, then Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia to Chernivtsi by breakfast, ending on the Habsburg line of 1866.
- Carpathian Tram (Vyhoda Forest Railway)
Ukraine’s last working forest railway, built in 1890 to haul Carpathian timber, now carries tourists up the Mizunka valley past waterfalls.
Wikipedia (UK) ↗
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland
The world’s oldest narrow-gauge railway company (1836): double-ended Fairlie steam from Caernarfon castle through Snowdonia to the slate town of Blaenau.
Wikipedia ↗ - Avanti West Coast
Traces the pioneering 1838 London and Birmingham Railway, the first great trunk line driven into the capital, from Euston to England’s second city.
Wikipedia ↗ - Tyne Valley Line
One of the world’s first cross-country railways (1838), shadowing Hadrian’s Wall from the Tyne to the Solway — the Roman frontier out the window.
Wikipedia ↗ - Hull Trains
An open-access original: Hull’s own train to London since 2000, off the East Coast racetrack at Doncaster and over the Ouse into Paragon station.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cardiff–Portsmouth
Wales to the Solent the slow, lovely way: the Severn Tunnel, Bath’s crescents, Salisbury’s spire and the harbour at Portsmouth.
- Great Western Main Line
Brunel’s original 1841 main line: billiard-table levels from Paddington to Didcot, then a 1 in 100 fall through the 3 km Box Tunnel, said to face the sunrise on his birthday.
Wikipedia ↗ - Brighton Main Line
Victorian London’s dash to the sea, once home of the all-Pullman Brighton Belle — still under the hour from Victoria to the pier and the Lanes.
Wikipedia ↗ - Edinburgh–Glasgow Express
Scotland’s busiest corridor since 1842: four electric expresses an hour between its two great cities over the Falkirk high route.
Wikipedia ↗ - Shrewsbury–Chester
The 1848 border line between two walled towns: over Telford’s country at Chirk and the great Cefn viaduct, down the Dee valley through Wrexham to Chester.
Wikipedia ↗ - Liverpool–Norwich
England corner to corner: five hours and a bit through Sheffield, Nottingham and the Fens — the longest all-stops cross-country ride in the country.
- TransPennine Express
Coast to coast across northern England: Liverpool to Manchester, over the Pennines by way of Huddersfield and Leeds, then up the East Coast Main Line to the Tyne.
Wikipedia ↗ - Great Eastern Main Line
“Norwich in 90”: East Anglia’s main line across Constable country with its all-new Swiss-built FLIRT fleet — a whole English region in one green run.
Wikipedia ↗ - South Wales Main Line
GWR’s flagship South Wales express; Hitachi bi-modes drop off the 25 kV wires west of Cardiff and switch to diesel for the last dash to Swansea.
Wikipedia ↗ - LNER
Azuma expresses hold 125 mph down the East Coast Main Line, coming over the Tyne into Newcastle on Robert Stephenson’s High Level Bridge.
Wikipedia ↗ - North Wales Coast Line
The old Irish Mail route to the Dublin ferries, crossing Robert Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge to Anglesey and skirting the walls of Conwy Castle.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cumbrian Coast Line
England’s forgotten coastal railway: the Irish Sea one side, the Lakeland fells the other, all the way round from Hadrian’s city to shipbuilding Barrow.
Wikipedia ↗ - Leeds–Morecambe
The 1850 “Little North Western” the slow way out of Airedale: Bentham’s fell country, the Lune valley at Wennington, and the sands of Morecambe Bay to finish.
Wikipedia ↗ - LNER
Japanese-designed Azuma bi-modes sprint the East Coast Main Line out of King’s Cross (1852) to reach Leeds in a little over two hours.
Wikipedia ↗ - Belfast–Derry Line
Michael Palin called the Coleraine–Derry run one of the world’s most beautiful; the train skims the Atlantic strand below cliff-top Mussenden Temple.
Wikipedia ↗ - Welsh Marches Line
The great spine outside England’s trunk lines: Cardiff to Manchester up the castle-studded Welsh border through Abergavenny, Ludlow and Shrewsbury.
Wikipedia ↗ - Tarka Line
Along the Taw through Henry Williamson’s Tarka the Otter country — Devon’s surviving branch line winding from Exeter’s cathedral city to Barnstaple.
Wikipedia ↗ - West Wales Line
The 1856 line west: Llanelli’s sands, the Tywi at Carmarthen, then deep Pembrokeshire to the haven Nelson called the finest port in Christendom.
Wikipedia ↗ - South Western Main Line
Waterloo’s main line to the sea: Winchester’s cathedral close, Southampton’s ocean-liner docks, Bournemouth sands and the Jurassic Coast at Weymouth.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rhymney Line
The Rhymney Railway’s own valley, opened to passengers in March 1858: out of Cardiff through the Caerphilly tunnel under the mountain, then Ystrad Mynach and Bargoed to the head of the valley at Rhymney.
Wikipedia ↗ - LNER Azuma
The Flying Scotsman’s route since 1862: and where Mallard set the never-beaten steam record of 203 km/h in 1938.
Wikipedia ↗ - Highland Main Line
Over Druimuachdar Pass at 452 m — the highest main line in Britain — threading the Cairngorms from the capital to the Highland capital.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pembroke Dock Branch
Branch line to the sea at every turn: Tenby’s walls and beaches, Saundersfoot, and the Cleddau at Pembroke Dock.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cambrian Line
Birmingham to the Irish Sea over the Cambrian Mountains: Welshpool, the Talerddig summit cutting, Machynlleth and the estuary into Aberystwyth.
Wikipedia ↗ - Talyllyn Railway
The world’s first railway saved by volunteers, in 1951: its Victorian steam engines still cross Dolgoch Viaduct into the Fathew valley.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cambrian Coast Line
Clings to the Mid-Wales shore on mostly single track, rumbling across the half-mile timber Barmouth Viaduct over the Mawddach estuary.
Wikipedia ↗ - Keighley & Worth Valley Railway
The branch that starred in the 1970 film “The Railway Children”, steaming up the Brontë moors past Haworth to the mill village of Oxenhope.
Wikipedia ↗ - Heart of Wales Line
A 121-mile request-stop ramble through empty Mid Wales, crossing the castle-like 13-arch Knucklas Viaduct where trains halt only if you flag them down.
Wikipedia ↗ - Midland Main Line
St Pancras’s own intercity: the Midland Main Line under Barlow’s great arch, up through Bedford and Leicester to Nottingham — Britain’s last classic trunk to join the atlas.
Wikipedia ↗ - Midland Main Line
St Pancras’s own main line: Leicester, Derby and Chesterfield’s crooked spire, into Sheffield under the Bramall Lane floodlights.
Wikipedia ↗ - Caledonian Sleeper
The “Deerstalker Express”: fall asleep at Euston, wake up crossing Rannoch Moor with red deer at the window.
Wikipedia ↗ - Far North Line
Britain’s most northerly line, a lonely 4-hour run to Wick that swings far inland on the Lairg Loop to dodge the deep Highland sea firths.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway
Fifteen-inch gauge up Eskdale from the Cumbrian coast, laid for iron ore in 1875 and run since as a miniature main line that Cumbria calls La’al Ratty.
- Settle–Carlisle Line
England’s highest main line crests Ais Gill at 356 m after striding across the 24-arch Ribblehead Viaduct, built by navvies camped on Batty Moss.
Wikipedia ↗ - Night Riviera
Sleeping cars have run west from Paddington since 1877; today’s train hugs Brunel’s storm-lashed Dawlish sea wall to the far tip of Cornwall.
Wikipedia ↗ - Conwy Valley Line
From the pier at Llandudno up the Conwy gorge into Snowdonia’s slate mountains, meeting the Ffestiniog steam trains at Blaenau — coast to crag in an hour.
Wikipedia ↗ - West Highland Line — Oban
The West Highland Line’s other arm: splitting at Crianlarich for Loch Awe, Kilchurn Castle’s ruin and the Hebrides ferry port of Oban.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway
The world’s highest and steepest fully water-powered railway (1890): gravity and 700-gallon tanks alone work its twin cars on a 58% grade.
Wikipedia ↗ - Hope Valley Line
Straight through the Peak District: Edale, Kinder Scout and the Hope valley between England’s steel and cotton cities — the hikers’ line.
Wikipedia ↗ - Snowdon Mountain Railway
Britain’s only public rack-and-pinion railway, Swiss-engineered in 1896: 950 vertical metres from Llanberis to the roof of Wales.
Wikipedia ↗ - Borderlands Line
Wrexham to the Wirral: 1860s Wrexham, Mold and Connah’s Quay metals joined to the 1896 North Wales and Liverpool line, crossing the Dee on the Hawarden swing bridge and running on to Bidston for Liverpool.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kyle of Lochalsh Line
One of the world’s great scenic railways, blasted through Torridonian rock for 82 miles from Inverness to the Skye ferry pier at Kyle of Lochalsh.
Wikipedia ↗ - Great Central Railway
Britain’s only double-track heritage main line, where two steam expresses can pass at speed just as they did on the last main line built towards the Continent.
Wikipedia ↗
🇺🇸 United States
- Strasburg Rail Road
Chartered in 1832, America’s oldest continuously operating railroad still steams through Lancaster County’s Amish farmland.
Wikipedia ↗ - Napa Valley Wine Train
Guests wine and dine in restored early-1900s Pullman lounge cars behind vintage 1950s Alco diesels, rolling past Napa vineyards at a tasting pace.
Wikipedia ↗ - Missouri River Runner
Twice a day along the wide Missouri: Hermann’s German wine town, the capitol at Jefferson City and ragtime Sedalia between the two big cities.
Wikipedia ↗ - Mount Washington Cog Railway
The world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway (1869): still shoving trains up a 37% grade to New England’s stormiest, windiest summit.
Wikipedia ↗ - Monongahela Incline
Opened 1870, the oldest continuously operating funicular in the United States — still a fare-integrated everyday transit link up Mount Washington.
Wikipedia ↗ - Mountaineer
Follows the 1875 Maine Central grade up Crawford Notch, creeping across the curved Frankenstein Trestle high above the Saco.
- Duquesne Incline
Original 1877 wooden Brill cars still climb the 30-degree grade to Grandview Avenue and Pittsburgh’s postcard skyline overlook.
Wikipedia ↗ - Royal Gorge Route
Rides the canyon won in the 1879 “Royal Gorge War”, the Arkansas River alongside and a suspension bridge 291 m overhead.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
America’s highest steam railroad, 1880 Rio Grande narrow gauge. K-36 Mikados storm 3,054 m Cumbres Pass and teeter along the Toltec Gorge rim.
Wikipedia ↗ - Durango & Silverton
1882 gold-rush narrow gauge: steam-hauled ever since, on the Highline ledge blasted 120 m above the Animas River gorge.
Wikipedia ↗ - Fenelon Place Elevator
Built in 1882 so banker J.K. Graves could ride the bluff home for lunch — billed as the world’s shortest, steepest scenic railway.
Wikipedia ↗ - Georgetown Loop Railroad
To gain 640 ft between two towns just 2 miles apart, the narrow gauge spirals over itself on the Devil’s Gate High Bridge, an 1884 marvel rebuilt in 1984.
Wikipedia ↗ - Skunk Train
Nicknamed the “Skunk” in 1925 for its reeking gas railcars, you smelled it before you saw it, still winding out of Fort Bragg through the coast redwoods.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pikes Peak Cog Railway
North America’s highest railway has climbed to the 4,302 m summit that inspired “America the Beautiful” since 1891; Swiss railcars took over the grade in 2021.
Wikipedia ↗ - Johnstown Inclined Plane
Built after the 1889 flood so Johnstown could flee uphill: one of the world’s steepest vehicular inclines, still hauling cars up Yoder Hill.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sunset Limited
America’s oldest train name, running since 1894: crosses the Pecos River High Bridge and the Chihuahuan Desert three times a week.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lookout Mountain Incline Railway
’America’s Most Amazing Mile’ since 1895 — the 72.7% grade near the summit ranks among the steepest on any passenger railway.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lake Shore Limited
Heir to the New York Central’s 1897 Water Level Route: up the Hudson at dusk, along Lake Erie by night, into Chicago with morning coffee.
Wikipedia ↗
🇺🇾 Uruguay
- AFE Tacuarembó–Rivera
Uruguay’s last passenger train. Swedish-built Y1 railcars rattle five days a week through the northern hills to the Brazilian border at Rivera.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence