ŽFBH trains

ŽFBH runs the trains in the Federation half of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the Sarajevo to Mostar Talgo.

If you are taking a train in Bosnia and it starts or ends in Sarajevo, this is the company you are travelling with. Its full name is Javno preduzeće Željeznice Federacije BiH, a Sarajevo company wholly owned by the Federation government and formed in 2001 out of two wartime predecessor railways. You will also see it written ŽFBiH, including on its own logo. Both spellings are the company's own.

The lines ŽFBH actually runs

Three things, and a short list at that.

The line south from Sarajevo through Konjic, Jablanica, Mostar and Čapljina is the one worth planning a trip around, with two trains each way per day and a seasonal weekend extension over the Croatian border to Ploče. North of Sarajevo, trains run through Zenica to Maglaj. Around the capital there are local services out to Visoko and Pazarić.

Note what is not on that list. The northern line stops at Maglaj and no longer reaches Doboj, which is where the other Bosnian railway begins. There is no ŽFBH train to Banja Luka, Tuzla or anywhere in Republika Srpska, and no connection you can make on the day.

The infrastructure is larger than the timetable suggests. ŽFBH publishes 608.495 km of track, 163 tunnels, 233 bridges and 34 viaducts, much of it carrying freight or nothing at all.

The trains themselves

The Sarajevo to Čapljina service uses Talgo sets: articulated, air conditioned, with a café bar and first and second class seating, though only second class tickets are sold. For a country this size that is a better train than you would expect, and it is the main reason the Mostar run is worth taking over the bus.

They are hauled by 441-series electric locomotives, and the fleet is thin. ŽFBH overhauls them in house at its Central Workshop in Rajlovac to keep costs down and stretch the traction pool further: 441-909 came in during 2025 in poor condition and is back in traffic, with 441-908 due to follow at the end of September 2026. That is worth knowing because a two trains a day service has no spare capacity when a locomotive is out.

Buying a ticket

Buy at the station counter and pay in convertible marks. ŽFBH normally sells online through a form on its own homepage, up to two weeks ahead, with collection at the station before you travel. Online sales have been switched off for a technical fault, and the seasonal Ploče trains were never sold online even when it worked.

A second class one way ticket from Sarajevo to Mostar runs at about 14 BAM, and about 17 BAM through to Čapljina, with roughly 20 percent off a return. ŽFBH does not publish a domestic price list on its own site, so treat those as orientation and let the counter be the authority. There are no seat reservations on any ŽFBH train.

Interrail and Eurail on ŽFBH

Do not assume your pass covers the Mostar Talgo. The pass sellers give two different answers about ŽFBH, limiting acceptance to paper passes on ŽRS in one place and including ŽFBH's fast and local trains in another, and ŽRS is the northern local network rather than anything ŽFBH runs.

ŽFBH is no help either way. Its own Interrail page carries no fares and no conditions, only an instruction to contact the passenger service department. You can do that on info@zfbh.ba before you travel if the answer matters to your budget.

The practical answer is to buy the ticket. At 14 BAM it costs less than lunch, and it removes the only argument you are likely to have with a Bosnian conductor.

At Sarajevo station

Sarajevo's station sits beside the main bus station, which is convenient given how much Bosnian travel happens by road. Inside, facilities are thin: no bureau de change, no cash machine, no left luggage. Those are all next door at the bus station. The ticket office has been keeping roughly 06:00 to 17:00 hours, and there is no machine to fall back on outside them, so an early or late arrival needs planning.

With two trains a day and a locomotive pool this thin, the timetable has no slack in it when something goes wrong. Check your exact departure with ŽFBH a day or two ahead rather than trusting a printed schedule, and give yourself time to queue at the window.