City to city
Athens to Thessaloniki by train
Athens → Thessaloniki
- Journey time
- ≈ 5h 12m
- Direct trains
- Yes
- Fewest changes
- 0
- Operators
- Hellenic Train
Trains link Athens (Athens) and Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki) in about 5h 12m at best, with no changes needed. The corridor is part of the Hellenic InterCity (481 km, typically ≈ 4 h), one of 1247 routes plotted in the World Train Map atlas.
How long does the train from Athens to Thessaloniki take?
Trains cover Athens to Thessaloniki in about 5h 12m, with little variation between departures.
Is there a direct train from Athens to Thessaloniki?
Yes: direct trains run between Athens and Thessaloniki.
Is the train or a flight faster from Athens to Thessaloniki?
A typical flight works out roughly 1h 40m quicker door to door (about 3h 55m against 5h 30m by train, once airport time is counted) — but the train emits about 3× less CO₂e, even on conservative official emission factors.
- Train, door to door
- ≈ 5h 30m
- Flight, door to door
- ≈ 3h 55m (est.)
- CO₂e per passenger
- ~13 kg train · ~41 kg plane
Flight time and emissions are transparent estimates, not airline schedules — method, factors and all 109 compared pairs on Train vs plane in Europe.
This corridor in the atlas
- Hellenic InterCity Past Thermopylae and under Mount Olympus. Greece’s spine line, now run by tilting Italian arrows.
Legendary routes through Athens or Thessaloniki
- Thrace InterCity Thessaloniki → Alexandroupoli
- Thessaloniki–Florina Thessaloniki → Florina
- Athens–Chalkida Athens → Chalkida
- Proastiakos Airport Line Piraeus → Athens Airport
More train routes in Greece.
Journey figures are typical values sampled from public European schedule data; exact times vary by day. Always check the operator when booking.