Scenic route
ICN Zagreb–Split
Zagreb → Split · Croatia
ICN Zagreb–Split in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 424 km
- Fastest time
- 7 h
- Average speed
- 61 km/h
- Top speed
- 140 km/h
- Operator
- HŽPP
- Train
- RegioSwinger tilting DMU
- Countries
- Croatia
- In service since
- 2004
- Runs
- 2× daily, more in summer
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Tilting railcars lean through the bare karst of the Lika plateau below Velebit, then swoop down to the palm-fringed Adriatic at Split.
When Croatia opened this tilting-train service in 2004, it gave the coast its first serious rail link since Yugoslav days: RegioSwinger diesels swinging through the Dinaric karst from the capital to the sea. The route climbs past Ogulin beneath the bulk of Klek, crosses the bare Lika plateau where bora winds comb the scrub, and passes Knin’s clifftop fortress before dropping through the Kaštela hinterland to Split’s palm-lined harbour terminus beside Diocletian’s Palace. Summer brings extra and overnight runs for the beach traffic.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 5384782 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within 71 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 21 m from it
- Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits 0.1 km from the shape of IC 521
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Ogulin under Klek mountain
- Lika karst plateau
- Velebit massif on the horizon
- Knin fortress
- Kaštela bay descent
- Split harbour beside Diocletian’s Palace
More scenic routes
- Glacier Express
“The world’s slowest express”: 291 bridges, 91 tunnels and the 2,033 m Oberalp Pass at an average of 36 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bernina Express
A UNESCO World Heritage railway: 7 % grades with no rack, the Brusio spiral, and the highest rail crossing of the Alps at 2,253 m.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bergensbanen
Northern Europe’s highest main line: over the bare Hardangervidda plateau at 1,237 m, through 182 tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - West Highland Line
Regularly voted the world’s most scenic railway: around Rannoch Moor and over the 21-arch Glenfinnan Viaduct of film fame.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in Croatia.
Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Split → Zagreb · Zagreb → Split.