Croatian Railways: Not The Train Ride We Recommend

Croatian Railways (Hrvatske željeznice or HŽ) is the national train company of Croatia. I took a train journey after taking a bus journey from Zagreb to Dubrovnik.

My review is based on 2 routes:

1. Split – Zagreb
2. Zagreb – Zurich

Cost

Good news is that Croatian Railways’ tickets & seat reservations are quite cheap. I paid about 70 Kunas for a seat reservation while going from Split to Zagreb. I paid EUR 10 for a seat reservation while going to Zurich from Zagreb.

Bad news is that this money is still not worth. Like literally not. At least some of the buses are spacious, luxurious & takes lesser travel time.

Punctuality

Croatian Railways was pleasantly punctual. It was surprising considering their infrastructure. But it just arrived on time (both times). It didn’t reach the destination on the stipulated time.

We had to rush with our Zurich – Paris train journey because SNCF is strict about its train timings & Croatian Railways didn’t care.

Comfort

I couldn’t find a single comfortable seat on both trains. They were old coaches with less space in between. If you’re traveling with more luggage, good luck with it.

Frequency

It depends on where you want to travel with Croatian Railways. If you are planning to go to any other non-Croatian city, frequency is not very good. If you’re planning to travel between popular Croatian towns & cities, frequency is better but not the best.

Always plan your travel regardless of your destination.

Download & plan your trips with Rail Europe’s My Train Companion app here – iOS | Android

Services

On international overnight trains, there is a restaurant coach. Toilets are pretty neat & clean (compared to rest of the train). There are absolutely no other services available in Croatian Railways’ trains.

Luggage Space

One word – bad. The luggage space in any compartment of these trains is really less. I had to put my feet up on my luggage & sleep because apparently, Croatian Railways do not know the concept of big bags. Overhead luggage space is decent but we obviously can’t put the big bags up there.

Book your Croatian Railways tickets from Rail Europe.

Picture Credits: WikiMedia