Train routes in Czechia
33 routes · classic 21 · night train 5 · scenic 4 · heritage 2 · mountain 1
33 routes cross Czechia in the World Train Map atlas. The longest is the European Sleeper at 1,200 km; the fastest is the Jižní expres, running up to 200 km/h; the oldest line dates to 1839. Every route links to its facts, photo and story, and to the interactive world map.
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Classic (21)
- Railjet
Follows the Habsburg Empire’s first steam railway of 1839. Prague, Brno and Vienna strung like pearls.
Wikipedia ↗ - SC Pendolino
Czechia’s flagship tilting Pendolino links Prague with Moravia’s industrial capital Ostrava via the cathedral city of Olomouc.
Wikipedia ↗ - RegioJet
Yellow open-access trains with steward service and free coffee. RegioJet broke the state railway’s grip on the Prague–Brno run.
Wikipedia ↗ - Praha–Cheb Express
Heads west through Plzeň, birthplace of Pilsner lager, to the spa-country town of Cheb near the German border.
Wikipedia (CS) ↗ - Railjet
Four countries in eleven hours, Danube Bend to Brandenburg by way of Bratislava, Brno and Prague, and through the sandstone gorge of the Elbe on a railway the Saxons and the Austrians opened together in 1851.
- 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.
- 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) ↗ - 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) ↗ - 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) ↗ - 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) ↗ - R10 Krakonoš
Rychlík from Prague across the Elbe lowlands to Hradec Králové, then up the foothills to Trutnov beneath the Krkonoše mountains.
- 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 ↗ - R9 Vysočina
The slow way to Brno: the 1953-completed Vysočina highland line via Havlíčkův Brod and Žďár, the second main line between the two cities.
- RB 1 Zwickau–Kraslice
Out of the Zwickau coalfield into the Vogtland hills and over the Czech border above Klingenthal to Kraslice, on rails a coal railway company opened in November 1875.
- RE 2 Liberec–Dresden
Bohemia into Saxony on the Lusatian branches: Liberec down the Neisse to Zittau, then Ebersbach and Bischofswerda, on a chain the Oberoderwitz link completed in October 1879.
- L2 Děčín–Liberec
Four companies laid it in pieces from 1869 onwards; the last link opened on 16 September 1900, climbing to Liberec through five tunnels and over the 30 m viaduct at Novina.
Wikipedia ↗ - R11 České Budějovice–Brno
Three railways end to end: the Franz Josef line to Veselí from 1871, the Bohemian transversal on to Jihlava from 1887, and the line through Třebíč to Brno, whose middle section opened in June 1886.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sp Strakonice–Tábor
Opened in 1889 across South Bohemia: out of the Otava valley at Strakonice, through Písek, over the Vltava at Červená and past the stone viaducts above Milevsko to Tábor.
Wikipedia ↗ - Franz-Josefs-Bahn
Vienna’s line to the Waldviertel: from the Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof along the Danube to Tulln, up by Eggenburg and across the forest plateau to Gmünd and over the Czech border to České Velenice; the Vienna end opened in 1870.
Wikipedia ↗ - Wrocław–Międzylesie railway
From Lichkov on the Czech border by Międzylesie and the Długopole tunnel down the Nysa Kłodzka valley to Kłodzko, then north by Ziębice and Strzelin to Wrocław; the line through the tunnel opened in 1875.
Wikipedia (PL) ↗
Night train (5)
- European Sleeper
Crowdfunded start-up that gave the Low Countries their night train back: via The Hague and Amsterdam to Berlin and the Elbe valley to Prague.
Wikipedia ↗ - RegioJet Night Train
Open-access yellow night train since 2015: cheap couchettes out of Prague, over the Jablunkov Pass and under the dark High Tatras to Košice.
Wikipedia ↗ - Chopin
The Chopin sleeper has linked Vienna and Warsaw since at least the 1980s, slipping through the Moravian Gate by night and finishing down Poland’s CMK fast line into the capital before six.
Wikipedia ↗ - EuroNight Praha–Zürich
The Czech–Swiss night link revived in 2023: the Elbe sandstone gorge at dusk, the Rhine plain at dawn, Zurich by breakfast.
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.
Scenic (4)
- 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.
- 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) ↗ - Posázavský Pacifik
Prague’s “Pacific”, the tramps’ weekend railway of the 1920s: ledges above the Vltava and Sázava canyons and the 41 m Žampach viaduct on the way to Čerčany.
Wikipedia (CS) ↗ - Číčenice–Nové Údolí railway
Prachatice was reached in 1893, Volary in 1899 and the Bavarian border in 1910; through trains to Passau stopped in 1951 and the rails past Nové Údolí are now pushed by hand.
Wikipedia ↗
Heritage (2)
- 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 ↗
Mountain (1)
- Zubačka Rack Railway
Czechia’s only cog railway, climbing the Jizera Mountains on an Abt rack at a gradient of 58‰, a national record.
Wikipedia ↗
Photos via Wikimedia Commons; each route page credits the author & licence
What is the fastest train in Czechia?
The Jižní expres, running Prague to České Budějovice at up to 200 km/h. It is one of 33 routes in Czechia in this atlas.
Are there night trains in Czechia?
Yes, 5 sleeper services in this atlas serve Czechia: European Sleeper (Brussels – Prague), RegioJet Night Train (Prague – Košice), Chopin (Vienna – Warsaw), EuroNight Praha–Zürich (Prague – Zurich), and others.
Can you cross the border by train from Czechia?
Yes, 13 of its 33 routes continue into another country: Railjet (Prague – Vienna), European Sleeper (Brussels – Prague), RegioJet Night Train (Prague – Košice), Railjet (Budapest – Berlin), among others.
Which is the most scenic railway in Czechia?
Czechia has 5 scenic or mountain lines in this atlas. The longest is the R16 Praha–Železná Ruda, 203 km.
Cross-border lines continue into
Train routes in Austria 64 routes
Train routes in Belgium 30 routes
Train routes in Germany 144 routes
Train routes in Hungary 41 routes
Train routes in Netherlands 20 routes
Train routes in Poland 58 routes
Train routes in Slovakia 20 routes
Train routes in Switzerland 71 routes