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  • Trains from Croatia/Slovenia to Italy

  • Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.
Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.

Moderators: Komachi, David Benton

 #1480199  by flexliner
 
Hi all
Planning a jaunt between Croatia/Slovenia and Italy. Very disappointing to find that there is no direct rail service in spite of many other inter country services in Europe.
One can take a train that ends in villa oppicina which is in Italy. But the tram from there to Trieste is out of service. Even though there are rails there are no trains.
The trenitalia site lists one or two trains from villa oppicina I think to udine but not for any date prior to September 9
There are rumors on European rail sites about a possible new direct service in September. Could those two trains represent the supposed new service?
Can anyone shed light on the history of rail in this area and why the trains which used to run were cut?
 #1480201  by george matthews
 
flexliner wrote:Hi all
Planning a jaunt between Croatia/Slovenia and Italy. Very disappointing to find that there is no direct rail service in spite of many other inter country services in Europe.
One can take a train that ends in villa oppicina which is in Italy. But the tram from there to Trieste is out of service. Even though there are rails there are no trains.
The trenitalia site lists one or two trains from villa oppicina I think to udine but not for any date prior to September 9
There are rumors on European rail sites about a possible new direct service in September. Could those two trains represent the supposed new service?
Can anyone shed light on the history of rail in this area and why the trains which used to run were cut?
This frontier has had a long history of being rather 'hard'. For a long time it was the frontier between NATO Europe and the Communist state of Yugoslavia. Although Yugoslavia under Marshall Tito was not a member of the Soviet bloc, travel across it was by no means as free as across NATO and EU borders. Since Yugoslavia broke up into several small states there has been a condition of uncertainty with several smaller wars between them. This situation has discouraged mass travel. Although some Adriatic towns have become tourist destinations none of them are the kind of mass magnets which attract the sort of tourism which would justify a properly functioning rail line with full service. Only if all the small states became members of the EU would this tend to change.
 #1480228  by flexliner
 
Oddly enough IIRC read somewhere that there actually was cross border rail service back in the days of the communists. Don’t remember exactly when it ceased. Mid 90s maybe. Don’t know why either. (Think either on rail Europe site or maybe seat 61 site
 #1480237  by george matthews
 
flexliner wrote:Oddly enough IIRC read somewhere that there actually was cross border rail service back in the days of the communists. Don’t remember exactly when it ceased. Mid 90s maybe. Don’t know why either. (Think either on rail Europe site or maybe seat 61 site
Yes, the situation has got worse since Yugoslavia broke up.
 #1480239  by flexliner
 
George - any idea if they will really restore service?

trenitalia as i said shows one or two trains a day from Villa Oppicina onwards but only after september 9
one of them I think Regional 1824 is also listed on the DB site I believe from Ljubliana
if it really runs would be good for my plans though a 0557 departure aint fun
alas the trenitalia site does NOT show it coming from Ljubliana and the DB site does not allow to book it....

i hope it is real would be much cheaper than cross border car rental
and probably more comfortable than flixbus whatever than is
 #1480302  by george matthews
 
The European political situation is at present very volatile. There are very large numbers of migrants - people trying to reach the European Union from Syria and Iraq, and other places. These are often held up on the borders of the former Yugoslavia. They often try to reach trains going to Vienna. At present, partly in reaction to the migrants, there is a very right wing government in Italy which has a policy of resisting migrants. A similar government in Austria has a similar policy. Even more so is the government in Hungary. This situation does not favour frequent rail service across the former Yugoslav borders, or the borders of the new states.
 #1480360  by rhallock
 
There is good train service from Austria to Slovenia and on to Croatia. Both Slovenia and Croatia have good service also to Hungary. I traveled from Zurich via Innsbruck to Zagreb, then to Budapest last year with no trouble. Passports were checked at the Croatian borders since that country was not part of the Schengen group yet, but all went smoothly. I thought Croatia was a wonderful place to visit and would like to return. My T. Cook's 1986 timetables show five trains in each direction between Trieste and Ljubliana, with most continuing on to Beograd. I have read about the tram connection at Trieste, but with that out of service, it would take a taxi or a long hike to make connections. My observations of Europe are that in recent years a lot of former trans-national rail connection have been discontinued, with national railways dedicated more and more only to their own countries. Perhaps airline or bus competition is responsible. One would think that EU would have strengthened connections but outside of high speed routes, the opposite has been true.
 #1480381  by kato
 
rhallock wrote:Perhaps airline or bus competition is responsible.
Pretty much all direct train connections out of Trieste towards the east were replaced over the last ten years by bus connections (Trieste - Ljubljana takes about 100 minutes by express bus, Trieste - Rijeka about 115 minutes). The routes are dominated by international bus companies, in particular Arriva, with which Slovenian Railways has cooperation contracts.
rhallock wrote:One would think that EU would have strengthened connections but outside of high speed routes, the opposite has been true.
TEN-T Corridors 1 and 3 include a planned high-speed route between Venice and Ljubljana, going through Villa Opicina and bypassing Trieste on the ridge above it.

The planned Trenitalia trains to launch sometime later this year will take the same route and use some infrastructure already built in Italy for the planned route, such as the new-built high speed section east of Ronchi di Legionari and the "Trieste Airport" station located there (20 km outside the city). They've been postponed a couple times at short notice, so i'd take the current September 9th date with a grain of salt too.
george matthews wrote:The European political situation is at present very volatile. There are very large numbers of migrants - people trying to reach the European Union from Syria and Iraq, and other places.
Two years ago maybe, but not now and not in any larger context. The last cross-border train between Italy and Slovenia (a night train continuing to Hungary) was cancelled in 2011 since Trenitalia and the Hungarian Railways couldn't agree over some contractual terms.
 #1480587  by David Benton
 
Before the wall fell, i think the Eurail passes etc were valid on the Ferries, Eastern Italy to Greece, rather than rail through Eastern Europe.
Apart from the political situation , it was probably more pleasant anyway .
Austria has always been the main gateway between East and West , I think . That may change slowly.
 #1487299  by flexliner
 
From what I can see there are now two trains that run daily between Ljubljana and Italy. The 0557runs to Udine with connections at Trieste. The afternoon one runs to Trieste. Also two trains from Italy
Searchable on the dB site. And also visible on trenitalia