The Most Beautiful Train Journeys in Europe
The forgotten Habsburg line
The Bohinj Railway was built in 1906 to carry the Austro Hungarian empire to the sea, and a century later it is one of the quietest beautiful rides in Europe. From Jesenice it slips past Lake Bled, bores through the six kilometre Bohinj tunnel under the Julian Alps, then follows the impossibly turquoise Soca valley to the coast. On the way it crosses the Solkan Bridge, the largest stone arch railway bridge in the world, an eighty five metre span of pale stone over the green river.
Distance
89 km Jesenice to Nova Gorica
Duration
About 2 hours 30
Highlight
The 85 m Solkan stone arch bridge
Built
1906 for the empire to reach Trieste
Interrail
Fully covered on local trains
Almost no one outside Slovenia knows this line. There are no panoramic carriages and no surcharge, just ordinary local trains through the Soca valley. In summer a vintage steam museum train runs the route, and a car shuttle through the Bohinj tunnel makes it a loop with Lake Bled.
"An empire built it to reach the sea. Now it is just you, a turquoise river and the largest stone arch in the world.
"On the Bohinj Railway