The great extinction of the "night train" species has long since arrived in the Balkans. There was still one running on the Belgrade-Zagreb-Ljubljana-Villach route in 2019. But firstly, it is more of a night intercity (i.e. a normal IC that runs at night) and secondly, it is only a "quasi-direct connection" to Villach. I'll tell you here what that means, why you don't have to be afraid of the seating carriage on this route, but why it's still uncomfortable!
Timetable (status 2019)
The train leaves Belgrade at 21:00. Zagreb is reached at 04:25, which is really not pleasant. Ljubljana at 07:27, which is better. Then to the "quasi-direct connection": new carriages are added in Dobova on the border between Croatia and Slovenia. These run as far as Villach. The coaches from Belgrade, on the other hand, are left in Ljubljana. This means you can change carriages between Dobova (arrival: 05:08 / departure: 05:40) and Ljubljana (arrival: 07:17) without having to step onto the platform. However, you do have to move.
You can also find journey times here on rail.cc.
UPDATE 2020: The connection has been completely suspended since the coronavirus crisis in 2020.
Alternative travel connections from Belgrade to Villach
If you want to travel from Belgrade to Ljubljana, I recommend taking a Flixbus. There are two direct connections per day (one departure at noon, one in the afternoon) with a journey time of approx. 8 hours. The price is between 30 and 50 EUR. There are also some connections with a change in Zagreb. You can look up Flixbus timetables here.
Wagon material
In 2018, I travelled with a friend from Zagreb to Belgrade in a couchette coach operated by "Optima-Express". This was additionally attached in the summer months and was also utilised to around 70-80% - a great solution, actually. Unfortunately, this ended in 2019. For a long time, I had assumed that it just hadn't been announced anywhere. But that wasn't true. Because when I finally got the answer "no" at the counter in Belgrade-Centar, it was clear that there was only the seat carriage. I very much hope that this will not remain the case in future. Because even in 2018, it was uncertain for a long time whether the carriage would only run every 2 days or every day. When in doubt, the Website of the Serbian railway the most reliable information. Simply search for a connection and check whether the "bed symbol" is visible on the desired day of travel.
Reservation
You can also make a reservation for the seat carriage. A reservation costs around EUR 3. You can read below whether you can simply reserve several seats so that you get your own compartment. However, reservations are NOT obligatory, you can simply board the train as you wish.
Disappointment in Belgrade
As already described above: At the ticket counter in Belgrade, I was unfortunately disappointed as far as my hopes for a couchette car were concerned. The connection is actually really great and allows you to round off your Balkan journey with Belgrade and reach any place in Germany in less than 24 hours. But watch out at the railway station in Belgrade! The old railway station in the city (Beograd Glavna) has been closed since summer 2018. However, you can still buy tickets there. So I wanted to buy my reservation there for my return journey the next day. However, I was then directed to Beograd Centre/Centar station. This is the new railway station in Belgrade. It is near the Cathedral of St Sava. Some international train connections depart from here, for example to Zagreb/Zurich and Villach. Others (Thessaloniki via Skopje, Bar via Podgorica) depart from Topcider station. This station is located slightly outside the city. So watch out! However, my visit to the old main station had one advantage: I met Witold and Johannes from Jena, who wanted to take the same train as me, just one day earlier, that evening. Both were true Balkan fans, so we walked the 2 kilometres to the other station together and combined it with a tour of the city. Incidentally, the station name "Centar" (sometimes also "Prokop") is misleading. It is rather less close to the city centre than the abandoned station. There is also a ticket office in the new station. You can simply buy your reservation there. Payment is either in Serbian dinars or by credit card.
However, I had to think twice about whether I really wanted to take the train. I have horrible memories of my first and last journey at night in a seating carriage in the UK, which you can read about here. A badly (because far too much) cooled night train with a severe cold the next day. I considered alternatives. Perhaps travelling to Zagreb in the morning and from there either by Night train Zagreb-Munich or per Night train Zagreb-Zurich to Germany? At first I preferred it, but unfortunately, according to the lady at the counter, all the available sleeping options on these two trains were already fully booked, except for a sleeper carriage in Munich, which charged a whopping EUR 54 for a reservation. It wasn't worth it to me, so I decided to sleep in my hostel for another good night and "bite the bullet", as Johannes put it as Johannes put it.
Where to stay in Belgrade
I had booked the "Habitat" hostel for one night. A really nice hostel with everything you need. A rather small and cosy hostel, "where you are not a number" (according to the owner) with a family atmosphere. It has a kitchen, a TV in the common room, is right in the centre and the rooms are great. At the end of my trip, I treated myself to a single room, which was available for an unbeatable 16 EUR. You can find this and other hostels here at Hostelworld.
If you prefer to stay in a hotel, I can recommend the "Compass River City Botel" from friends. Price: under 25EUR per night and person in a twin room! You can find this and other hotels in Belgrade here at Booking.com.
Night train departure in Belgrade
Belgrade, July 2019, sunset. The new Sveti Sava (St Sava) Cathedral can be seen shining above the station's departure hall. The station itself is actually not even finished yet. The tracks are, but a proper station building still needs to be built on top, with shops, restaurants, etc.
At the moment, a few rooms in the basement are the only thing that can be called "station infrastructure". There is a snack vending machine and toilets where the ticket office is.
I was still wondering whether I should just buy 6 reservations to have the compartment to myself. That would actually require 6 tickets, but if in doubt you could just show one reservation. I wanted to, but then realised that the train was unlikely to be fully booked anyway. When the lady at the ticket counter told me the price (which was 100 times higher in Serbian dinars and therefore sounded "monstrous"), I got out of the affair by simply pretending that it was too expensive for me and then bought a single reservation instead. Incidentally, this is always a good tactic if you actually wanted to buy something, but then there's some reason why you change your mind and don't want to offend the seller.
From the ticket counter you go down a flight of stairs into the departure hall, after another flight of stairs down into the subway and after another flight of stairs up again you are at platform 5. Overall, the station makes a very clean impression, although it is not used very often.
And indeed: when the train departs from Belgrade, there are perhaps 10 people per carriage, which is more of a rounding up. Even at the evening stops in Novi Belgrade and New and Old Pasua, only 2-3 people get on the train in total.
The journey from Belgrade to New Belgrade across the Sava is really worth seeing.
I use the following trick to make sure that none of the passengers get the idea of sitting in my compartment: I put notes in the reservation display so that it looks as if my compartment is occupied.
I then spend the evening in the next compartment involved in an interesting conversation with two Interrail travellers from Toulouse. They were in Istanbul, just like me, and they wanted to go there as soon as they found out that you can get there with Interrail. They missed their connection in Sofia to Belgrade that morning and therefore spontaneously took a flight to Belgrade as they had an important appointment there. As I already mentioned in the report on the night train from Istanbul to Sofia, I therefore strongly recommend NOT planning with this connection.
At around 10 p.m. we had to struggle for a few minutes to banish a huge insect from the compartment.
I then go to "bed" at around 11 pm, or at least I try to. But before that, I'll give you a tour of the train, which isn't worth mentioning. In short, there are only seating carriages, all in compartments of 6 seats each. One or two of these carriages are 1st class, these are completely empty and differ from 2nd class only by a cover on the upper cushion and a slightly different colour of the seat fabric. See for yourself.
I still have the 6-seater compartment to myself. It will stay that way for the whole journey, by the way. Fortunately, you can push the seats together in the centre, just like in the Nightjet. To do this, you lift the seat slightly and pull it forwards. If you do this with all 6 seats, you get a large reclining area, which is slightly slanted at the walls, as the seats are longer than the compartment when folded out. Perhaps you can see what I mean in the photo.
Large reclining area in the seating compartment.
This means that 2 people can actually sit comfortably, maybe even three. It's also enough for me, but the seats harbour another danger. It's warm, so I sleep without pyjamas. However, the fabric of the seats tickles massively. I quickly remedy this by using my clothes as a base. It looks something like this:
Sleeping berth in the coach of the night train.
And there's something else dangerous about the train: shortly before midnight, a marathon of border and ticket checks begins. We reach Sid, the Serbian border, at ten to twelve. The train waits there for half an hour, passport control. Then it crosses the border for a few minutes, followed by another passport check in Croatia. And then it's time for ticket control. The tickets were already checked at the start of the journey, but there seems to have been a change of conductor and so you have to show your ticket again. Half an hour later, the train stops in Vinkovci, one of the biggest intermediate stops at night. One person gets on the train.
After this procedure, I fall asleep for the first time. About as far as Zagreb. At 04:28, the man from Vinkovci gets off again. Then: ticket inspection again. And again I wasn't expecting it. Just half an hour later, I sense my next disaster: the Slovenian border in Dobova. Until then, of course not Fall asleep again, 05:10 next passport control. This one is at least from both sides together, so you don't have to dig out your passport again. Croatia is now part of the Schengen area, so the check between Croatia and Slovenia should no longer be necessary.
I had my passport (because I knew the control) under my pillow anyway, but no matter. The coaches to Villach are attached here in Dobova. The journey continues at 05:40. You can guess what follows: "Tickets please!" As I'm awake now anyway, I switch to a carriage that goes to Villach and doesn't get dropped off in Ljubljana. This one also has compartments where the seats can't be adjusted and, for those who like it, a bicycle compartment.
I prepare my bed again in one of the cosier compartments and doze off again. When we reach Ljubljana at 07:18, the French get off and come to my window again (which can be opened) and we say goodbye. The train continues at 07:27. For the first time, a lot of people have boarded and I almost lose my unique selling point in the compartment. But it doesn't really matter, the night is over and another (sorry) ticket inspection follows. At least it's the first one that makes sense in my eyes.
From Dobova, the train travels along the Sava, the longest river in Slovenia and Croatia.
Journey along the Sava River on the Belgrade-Ljubljana night train.
The train stops a few more times, including in Lesce-Bled on the famous Lake Bled with its island. Shortly after 9 a.m. we reach Villach without any further immigration checks. Long live the Schengen area! I leave the train rather dreamily and board the "Eurocity Mimara" bound for Munich/Stuttgart/Cologne/Dortmund.
Conclusion
The problem is not necessarily with the coach, it's with the border controls. If you're alone and have room, it's not a problem. Nevertheless, this train unfortunately occupies one of the last places on my overnight train list (I think for understandable reasons). It's a real shame that such a great connection has its drawbacks. I don't want to advise against taking this train, you should just know what to expect. But who knows, maybe there will be couchette carriages again soon? I have to give the train credit for one thing though: it was always on time at every station (just like last year).
Alternatives, by the way, would be the EN Alpina (Belgrade-) Zagreb-Zurich and the EN Lisinski Zagreb-Munich depending on where you want to go.
You can find out what the current status is and how best to plan your Interrail tour by writing a comment under this travel report.
You can buy Interrail Passes here. If you use these links, we will receive a small commission from RailDude as a thank you for our free content. The price for you remains the same, of course!
Important links
Timetable / journey time from 10:30 hours: Serbian railway
Buy train tickets from 37.90 EUR: simply at a ticket counter in Belgrade. Or at the Serbian railway
Buy bus tickets - as the night train is not wrong at the moment - between 30-50 EUR: Flixbus
Book a hotel: Booking.com
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