Rail Travel in Greece

Below is a detailed map of the railways of Greece. You can zoom in by using the +/- buttons or by using the wheel on your mouse whilst hovering over the map.

This map has been extracted from the Railway Map of Europe with kind permission of the publishers.
You can purchase copies of the full map, as well as rail timetables, from The European Railway Timetable website

GREECE

Greece developed its railways little in recent years, but has now finally leapt into the modern age with a high speed standard gauge service between Athens and Thessaloniki though the section of this route north of Larissa was the scene of a dreadful head-on collision in February 2023, bringing into sharp focus the lack of spending on the railway infrastructure. Unfortunately, this means that there is now only one train pair a day running on the wonderful trip over the mountains between Lianokladi, Bralos, Levadia and Athens via the famous Gorgopotamos bridge (see link below), at rather antisocial times of the day too but ideal for a day trip to the capital from Lamia. There are limited regional services from Thessaloniki to Edessa & Florina in the west and Alexandrupoli in the east; also from Larissa to Volos on the coast and to Kalambaka in the west. A new standard gauge line to Patras now runs to Kiato with an onward bus connection but there is no indication of when the line may be completed. There is a very limited section of 1000mm narrow gauge lines still remaining in the Peloponnese but the famous 750mm rack railway from Diakopto on the Gulf of Corinth to Kalvryta 22kms away up in the mountains is still a magical ride. More information for those with reduced mobility, carriage of cycles and online ticket purchase from the Greek Railways website (see link below).

INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS:

Currently there are no direct rail connections between Greece and Turkey or Bulgaria. There is an overnight service linking Thessaloniki with Skopje in North Macedonia and Nis and Belgrade in Serbia.

The Balkan Flexipass can be purchased in both 2nd and 1st class for travel in Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania (only valid on CFR Calatori services), Serbia, Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

DS March 2023