The Unusual Cross-Border Train Running Only Summer Weekends
Between Poland and Slovakia lies a rather unusual railway border, served by an extremely limited train service that operates only on a few summer weekends, with no trains running for the remainder of the year.
The unusual Polish-Slovakian summer-only train
As part of #AllTheLinesEurope, in which I attempt to travel on all the railway lines in Europe that have scheduled passenger services, I visited the Polish-Slovakian border area in the far east of both countries.
In this remote region, far from the capitals of Warsaw and Bratislava, lies an unusual cross-border railway line linking Łupków (Poland) and Medzilaborce (Slovakia).
The railway line in itself is nothing extraordinary, even though it’s actually quite a scenic route as it traverses the Łupków Pass in the Carpathians.
What makes this railway line more special is the sparse train service provided by the Slovakian and Polish Railways between Łupków and Medzilaborce, with the towns linked by trains only on summer weekends.
The Polish DMU that runs between Łupków to Medzilaborce. ©AndyBTravels
From Łupków to Medzilaborce by train
If we look at the summer 2024 timetables, we can see a morning train running from Łupków to Medzilaborce and back, as well as an afternoon train making the journey between the two towns.
The service is currently operated by a Polish diesel multiple unit (DMU) train run.
As the timetable shows, these cross-border trains operate only on Saturdays and Sundays between 22nd June and 29th September.
Want to travel by train from south-eastern Poland to eastern Slovakia outside of summer weekends? Then you’re out of luck, as there are no trains on weekdays or during the autumn, winter, and spring months.
Timetable for trains from Łupków to Medzilaborce . ©PKP
Line history
The railway line between Łupków and Medzilaborce has quite a bit of history, as it was part of the main line linking Vienna and Budapest with Lemberg (Lviv) during the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
A private railway company, called Erste Ungarisch-Galizische Eisenbahn (EUGE) in German or Első Magyar-Gácsországi Vasút (EMGV) in Hungarian, was granted the concession to build the railway line in 1869, and the first stretch was completed in 1871.
However, the main tunnel across the Carpathians at the Łupków Pass proved so expensive to build that the company ran into financial trouble, prompting the Austrian and Hungarian governments to provide financial aid.
The entire line was completed in 1874, although in January 1889, EUGE/EMGV had to transfer the concession to the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways (kkStB) and the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV), each being assigned a section of the line to operate trains on.
On 26th September 1915, a freight train carrying 30 tank wagons filled with petroleum lost control on a slope near Medzilaborce and collided with a hospital train, killing 36 people.
In 1944, the main tunnel was blown up by the German Wehrmacht during their retreat in the Second World War and was rebuilt in 1946 by Soviet engineers.
Łupków station. ©AndyBTravels
The line runs across the Łupków Pass in the Carpathians. ©AndyBTravels
Current operations
The railway line between Łupków and Medzilaborce has never regained its historic importance in recent times.
As this mountainous border region is sparsely populated, there is little local demand, while passengers travelling between Austria, Hungary, and Lviv in Ukraine now primarily use a different railway line, which crosses the Hungarian-Ukrainian border between Zahony and Chop and the Mukachevo to Lviv railway line across the Carpathians.
Between 2010 and 2017, passenger service was completely halted, although the line has since resumed its unusual summer-only weekend train service.
On the plus side, the onward train connections on either side of the border — from Łupków towards Zagórz and on to Rzeszów in Poland, and from Medzilaborce to Humenné in Slovakia — are much better, with more frequent departures.
Although taking the train on railway lines with limited service is always a bit of a planning challenge, it’s great fun to explore remote European regions like these by train on my #AllTheLinesEurope adventure!
A Slovakian train at Medzilaborce station. ©AndyBTravels
Bilingual Slovakian-Rusyn station sign of Medzilaborce. This Slovak town has a sizeable Rusyn ethnic minority. ©AndyBTravels
