Athens by rail?

[Merseysider]

I’m contemplating a trip to Greece sometime in June; outwards by rail, and flying back, or vice versa.

Is it still possible to reach Athens by rail from the north? Eg from Budapest/Vienna/Munich. (Yes, I know it’ll take ages )

Last I heard was that Greek Railways had cut back services due to the financial crisis, and there’s a lot of conflicting information on the web.

If it’s not possible, what’s the furthest one could get by rail towards Athens before having to switch to coaches / buses / ferries?

Thanks in advance for any info

 

[SHD]

There is a daily Belgrade (18.10) - Thessaloniki (10.08+1) service.

You can try the following, all times local:

London St Pancras 07.01 - Paris Nord 10.17

Paris Gare de Lyon 11.45 - Zürich HB 16.26

Zürich HB 20.40 - Beograd 17.37+1

(Tight connection in Beograd, you might want to break your journey there and enjoy a shower and an evening by the Danube)

Beograd 18.10+1 - Thessaloniki 10.08+2

Thessaloniki 15.04+2 - Athens 20.12+2

 

[Merseysider]

That sounds good SHD - thanks for the heads up - I’ll look into that for sure

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Not sure about crossing the Macedonia-Greece border, I think it's buses at the moment, and Belgrade-Thessaloniki is overnight (not much use for scenery).
I was contemplating something similar, but from Sofia, having reached there last year via Budapest and Bucharest.
There appears to be a Sofia-Thessaloniki day train year round.
Services improve in the summer - loco hauled rather than EMUs, and running through rather than connections.
There is also a summer day Belgrade-Sofia train (going on overnight to Istanbul).
No problem Thessaloniki-Athens, roughly a 2-hourly TrainOSE service (now owned by Trenitalia!).
Sofia-Manchester is easy enough on EasyJet, they also go to Thessaloniki and Athens.

 

[MarcVD]

Done that in 2015.
1st day Brussels-Basel-Zurich. Less easy now that the direct train is gone.
2nd day Zurîch-Vienna-budapest. Direct train, railjet.
3rd day Budapest-Craiova. Direct train.
4th day Craiova-Sofia. Direct train, over the new Danube bridge.
5th day Sofia-Thessaloniki
6th day Thessaloniki-Athens.

The 4th and 5th day will bring you back 50 years in time.
And on the 6th day you will now travel electrically all the way between Thessaloniki and Athens.

 

[route101]

Only done Skopje to Thessaloniki back in 2010 . It had Slonvenian , Serbian , Greek and maybe a Czech or Hungarian coaches in the consist .I think back in the day there was services as far north as Munich to Athens

 

[MontyP]

Back in the day(1989 to be precise) I did the old direct train from Venice to Athens - I think it went via Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade and Skopje. Left Saturday late afternoon, arrived Monday lunchtime (41 hrs)! I think it was 5 hrs late, we broke down somewhere in northern Greece and I remember climbing out of the train to stand at the trackside. We had pre-booked couchettes at Victoria station before leaving the UK.

 

[30907]

Seat61 recommends using one of the Adriatic ferry routes.

 

[MarcVD]

Only done Skopje to Thessaloniki back in 2010 . It had Slonvenian , Serbian , Greek and maybe a Czech or Hungarian coaches in the consist .I think back in the day there was services as far north as Munich to Athens

Munich to Athens direct in 2010 ? Don't think such long distance trains still existed at that date... But earlier, definitely : my first far away destination was Athens, in 1980. I catched the train to Athens in Cologne, I think it was coming from Dortmund or Dusseldorf. Total trip lasted two days.

 

[MarcVD]

Done that in 2015.
1st day Brussels-Basel-Zurich. Less easy now that the direct train is gone.
2nd day Zurîch-Vienna-budapest. Direct train, railjet.
3rd day Budapest-Craiova. Direct train.
4th day Craiova-Sofia. Direct train, over the new Danube bridge.
5th day Sofia-Thessaloniki
6th day Thessaloniki-Athens.

Replying to myself... Just had a quick look on Bahn.de and that train Craiova Sofia seems gone already. Replaced by two locals with change in Vidin. Looks like this track on the new bridge Calafat Vidin over the Danube river is traveled only by one train per day...

 

[JonathanP]

According to the Marcus Grahnert's fantastic site, the D211 'Attika' München - Athens via Beograd and Skopje ran until spring 1994, whilst the D411 Dortmund - Athens 'Hellas-Express' finished in spring 1989.

I find it fascinating how the long distance rail network has been changed by the advent of business-ization and affordable air travel.

 

[duesselmartin]

Although the Attika was more theory than reality from 1992 due to the Balkan wars.

 

[route101]

Munich to Athens direct in 2010 ? Don't think such long distance trains still existed at that date... But earlier, definitely : my first far away destination was Athens, in 1980. I catched the train to Athens in Cologne, I think it was coming from Dortmund or Dusseldorf. Total trip lasted two days.

I should of said the 1980s ! I wonder if OSE coaches made it all the way to Germany .

 

[NicholasNCE]

I wonder if OSE coaches made it all the way to Germany .

They did indeed, the Hellas-Express 1989 composition was made up of a mix of DB, JŽ and OSE carriages according to the archives of the ever useful vagonweb.cz website: http://www.vagonweb.cz/razeni/vlak.php?rok=1989&id=390&lang=en

And here is the compostion of the Attika in 1991, complete with a OSE WLABm: http://www.vagonweb.cz/razeni/vlak.php?zeme=JZ&kategorie=Ex&cislo=211&nazev=Attika&rok=1992

 

[duesselmartin]

I certainly remember the Yugoslavia Express with its, for a child, exotic JZ coaches. Only SZD coaches were more impressive

 

[MarcVD]

I should of said the 1980s ! I wonder if OSE coaches made it all the way to Germany .

Definitely. For my 1980 trip, our reserved places were in a OSE couchettes car. It was in such bad state that we abandoned those places for an unreserved compartment in a nearby DB car.

 

[MarcVD]

I certainly remember the Yugoslavia Express with its, for a child, exotic JZ coaches. Only SZD coaches were more impressive

JZ coaches also came to Belgium when we had a weekly, holiday season, train from Oostende to Split & vv.

 

[route101]

Interesting . Wonder if any OSE cars go abroad now ?

 

[MarcVD]

Interesting . Wonder if any OSE cars go abroad now ?

At least to Sofia with the daily Sofia-Thessaloniki and vv. Two greek coaches are attached to a Sofia-Kulata local train (electrically hauled) and then handed over to a greek diesel loco, which takes them to Strymon, where they wait for about one hour before a train from Alexandropoulis arrives and takes them to Thessaloniki. At least that was the scenario when I was there in 2015.

 

[PaulLothian]

We traveled between London and Athens by train in 1972, the best railway trip I have ever done. Almost three days each way, and an amazing adventure. Wish I had kept detailed notes of the railway operations, but we do remember: being four hours late into Athens on the outward journey, which meant we were able to enjoy the scenery of northern Greece; being several hours late arriving in Venice on our return, and our train being attached to the later service due to set off at the same time to trundle across northern Italy in a 22-carriage caravan; and the SNCF catching up three hours on the schedule in a frenzied dash between Brig and Paris. Happy days!

 

[Steamysandy]

In September 1976 ,I photographed an OSE coach leading an express leaving Koln over the Hohenzollernbruke on a southbound train routed to Koblenz via the right bank and Bonn Beuel.
I saw it again at Koblenz in August 1986
In November 1984 I photographed it passing Koln Deutz with a 103 leading a 111 behind which was a TCDD blue coach followed by a coach with Cyrillic lettering.
Happy days!

 

[route101]

In September 1976 ,I photographed an OSE coach leading an express leaving Koln over the Hohenzollernbruke on a southbound train routed to Koblenz via the right bank and Bonn Beuel.
I saw it again at Koblenz in August 1986
In November 1984 I photographed it passing Koln Deutz with a 103 leading a 111 behind which was a TCDD blue coach followed by a coach with Cyrillic lettering.
Happy days!

Never realised Turkish coaches made it that far !

 

[Merseysider]

Thanks to all for the input!

I’ve booked as far as Zagreb.

I want to book 11:06 Zagreb - Belgrade 17:31 for the 20th June but am coming up short. Rail.cc suggests buying once in Croatia, and the Croatian/Serbian railway sites don’t seem to want to sell it me.

Loco2 will sell me a ticket at £51 which apparently isn’t the cheapest ticket.

Any help would be gratefully received

 

[30907]

What's the booking horizon? 2 months is common East of Vienna/Berlin.

 

[route101]

Thanks to all for the input!

I’ve booked as far as Zagreb.

I want to book 11:06 Zagreb - Belgrade 17:31 for the 20th June but am coming up short. Rail.cc suggests buying once in Croatia, and the Croatian/Serbian railway sites don’t seem to want to sell it me.

Loco2 will sell me a ticket at £51 which apparently isn’t the cheapest ticket.

Any help would be gratefully received

In the Balkans ive found it to book a few days ahead . Usually cheap .

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

You can't book the Zagreb-Belgrade leg online, you have to buy at the station.
The fare is apparently about €25. seat61 says there's no problem with selling out.
It's this train: (EN415), which is part-sleeper.
http://www.vagonweb.cz/razeni/vlak.php?zeme=HZPP&kategorie=EN&cislo=415&nazev=&rok=2018
I'll be doing it myself in June.

 

[Merseysider]

Thanks for the heads up

I was tempted to take the sleeper all the way from Zurich to Belgrade but the possibility of French strikes, and the relative ease of getting to München instead is what I went for.

Out of interest, why are there two direct trains in short succession from Zagreb (11:06 and 11:17) then nothing for the rest of the day? Is one of them cheaper than the other or something?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I think there's only one day train from Zagreb GK to Belgrade (EN415 at 1106).
The DB site shows an 1117 changing at Novska into EN415, but that's not mentioned on the HZ site.

 

[transplanted]

these long distance services fascinate me. my mother claimed she got a train from somewhere in yugoslavia to paris back when interrail tickets had just started. i would love to do the paris to moscow service before it eventually gets pulled.

 

[Merseysider]

As would I but the cost of visas is a barrier!