🇸🇰 Country
Train routes in Slovakia
20 routes · classic 12 · night train 1 · scenic 4 · heritage 2 · mountain 1
20 routes cross Slovakia in the World Train Map atlas. The longest is the Railjet at 992 km; the fastest is the RegioJet Night Train, running up to 160 km/h; the oldest line dates to 1848. Every route links to its facts, photo and story, and to the interactive world map.
Open the world railway map →Part of the Europe train map: every route on the continent, one map.
Classic (12)
- 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.
- 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.
- Trenčín Electric Railway (TREŽ)
One of Europe’s oldest surviving interurban tramways: 1950s narrow-gauge electric railcars still shuttle up to a Habsburg-era spa town.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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) ↗ - 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) ↗ - EC Hornád
Budapest’s only direct reach into eastern Slovakia: the little EuroCity that grows at Miskolc, bound for Košice’s Gothic cathedral square.
- 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 ↗ - 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.
- R Urpín
Named for the hill above Banská Bystrica: the southern rychlík route via Levice and Zvolen into the heart of central Slovakia.
- Košice–Humenné railway
Eastern Slovakia’s REX corridor via Trebišov toward the Vihorlat hills; the Humenné sleeper from Prague finishes on the same rails.
- R Zakarpatia
The daily crossing out of Transcarpathia into the European gauge, over the Tisza at Cierna nad Tisou on a line whose last section opened on 22 October 1873.
- Ponitran Prievidza–Bratislava
Down the Nitra valley on the StEG line of 1876 to 1896 and across to the Váh at Leopoldov on the link of 1898 that first gave Prievidza a fast train to Bratislava.
Wikipedia ↗
Night train (1)
- 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 ↗
Scenic (4)
- Tatra Electric Railway (TEŽ)
Metre-gauge electric cars climb to the High Tatra resort of Štrbské Pleso at 1,320 m, Slovakia’s highest railway station.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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) ↗ - 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) ↗ - Zvolen–Košice railway
The southern trans-Slovak line: three hours through the karst country via Lučenec, Plešivec and Rožňava beneath medieval mining towns.
Heritage (2)
- Čierny Hron Forest Railway
One of Europe’s last steam-worked forestry railways: its branch to Dobroč runs straight through the middle of a village football pitch.
Wikipedia ↗ - Orava Forest Railway
Built by POWs in 1915–18 to haul timber: the surviving 3.5 km climbs from Tanečník to Sedlo Beskyd on a five-switchback staircase unique in Europe.
Wikipedia ↗
Mountain (1)
- 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 ↗
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence
What is the fastest train in Slovakia?
The RegioJet Night Train, running Prague to Košice at up to 160 km/h. It is one of 20 routes in Slovakia in this atlas.
Are there night trains in Slovakia?
Yes — 1 sleeper service in this atlas serves Slovakia: RegioJet Night Train (Prague – Košice).
Can you cross the border by train from Slovakia?
Yes — 6 of its 20 routes continue into another country: RegioJet Night Train (Prague – Košice), Railjet (Budapest – Berlin), REX Wien–Bratislava (Vienna – Bratislava), EuroCity Hungaria corridor (Bratislava – Budapest), among others.
Which is the most scenic railway in Slovakia?
Slovakia has 5 scenic or mountain lines in this atlas. The longest is the Zvolen–Košice railway, 229 km.
Cross-border lines continue into
- 🇦🇹 Train routes in Austria 63 routes
- 🇨🇿 Train routes in Czechia 31 routes
- 🇩🇪 Train routes in Germany 136 routes
- 🇭🇺 Train routes in Hungary 41 routes
- 🇺🇦 Train routes in Ukraine 14 routes