Train travel in Montenegro

Montenegro has two passenger railway lines and one of Europe's most spectacular scenic routes, and no train at all to Kotor or Budva.

Željeznički prevoz Crne Gore, usually shortened to ŽPCG, runs every passenger train in the country. The track and stations belong to a separate company, ŽICG, after the old state railway was broken up in 2008. The whole network is 250 km long, three lines meet at Podgorica, and every metre carrying a passenger train is electrified. That is the entire system.

The Montenegrin rail network

The trunk of the system runs from the Adriatic port of Bar north through Podgorica to Bijelo Polje on the Serbian border. This is the Montenegrin end of the Belgrade to Bar railway, and it carries everything: local trains, the daily overnight service to Serbia, and the summer daytime train. A branch runs west from Podgorica through Danilovgrad to Nikšić, electrified and reopened to passengers in 2012 after twenty years of freight only. The third line, from Podgorica through Tuzi towards Shkodër in Albania, is the country's only unelectrified track and has never carried a scheduled passenger train.

The line tops out at 80 km/h and drops to 50 in the mountains between Trebešica and Bratonožići, so buses beat the train on plenty of Montenegrin journeys. Where the train wins it wins clearly.

Bar to Podgorica and the Nikšić branch

Take the train between Bar and Podgorica. Ten run each way every day of the year, eleven from mid-June to mid-September when the Belgrade day train joins them, and the trip takes about an hour for €2.80 in second class, €4.20 in first. No reservation, no booking window. February is no thinner than August, but the gaps are uneven, so check the day's list rather than assuming an hourly service.

The Nikšić branch is a quieter proposition. Five trains a day run each way between Podgorica and Nikšić, taking an hour and six minutes for €3.20 in second class, with a stop at Danilovgrad 29 minutes out of the capital. Modern air-conditioned electric units work most of these services, which makes for an easier ride than the older stock elsewhere on the network. Go if Nikšić is already on your itinerary, but do not build a day around it.

Several coast-line trains carry on north from Podgorica to Bijelo Polje, roughly two hours further, for €5.20 in second class. That leg is the scenic one.

The Belgrade to Bar railway

This is the reason most people look up Montenegrin trains at all. The line climbs from the coast at Bar to 1,032 m at Kolašin, crosses the Mala Rijeka viaduct about 200 metres above the riverbed, and runs out along a causeway across Lake Skadar between Virpazar and Vranjina. The Mala Rijeka is the highest railway viaduct in Europe. Roughly a third of the Montenegrin section sits inside a tunnel or on a bridge.

One train covers the whole route all year. The overnight sleeper leaves Belgrade in the evening and reaches Bar the following morning in about 11 hours, or Podgorica in about ten. From mid-June to mid-September a daytime train joins it, with a guaranteed cross-platform change at Bijelo Polje between the Serbian and Montenegrin portions. The Montenegrin half of that day train is second class only, whatever class of ticket you hold.

If your dates allow it, ride the day train northbound, because the best mountain scenery between Podgorica and Bijelo Polje then falls in daylight. Sit on the right going south and the left going north. On the sleeper, book a couchette or a berth rather than a seat, because eleven hours upright is not the experience anyone comes for.

Reaching Kotor, Budva and the rest of the coast

There is no railway to Kotor, Budva, Herceg Novi or Ulcinj. Bar is where the line stops. The narrow-gauge lines that once served the Bay of Kotor closed decades ago and nothing replaced them.

Book your train to Bar, then take a bus. Buses connect Bar and Podgorica with Budva and Kotor throughout the day, and the Podgorica to Budva run is roughly half-hourly across 65 km, with bus fares around €6. Sutomore, on the line just before Bar, is the closest the railway comes to a beach.

Trains to Montenegro from neighbouring countries

Serbia is the only country you can reach Montenegro from by passenger train. The line to Shkodër carries freight and nothing else, so there is no rail crossing from Albania and no through service from Tirana. Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo have no rail link with Montenegro in passenger use, which rules out the train from Dubrovnik, Sarajevo or Zagreb.

The Albanian link appears in EU corridor plans and both governments talk about reopening it to passengers. No funding has been allocated. Plan around a bus or the Belgrade route.

Tickets, fares and reservations

ŽPCG sells everything in euros, Montenegro's currency, so nothing here needs converting. Domestic trains need no reservation and you can buy at the station. The Belgrade services are the exception, though not the way most guides tell it. ŽPCG treats the reservation as optional and sells the ticket without one, or adds a seat for €3.00. Both pass companies call it mandatory, and on the sleeper it is the only way to get a bed. Buy one.

On the overnight train that fare buys the travel; a bed costs extra. A couchette place is €8 in a six-berth compartment or €12 in a four-berth, a sleeper berth is €16 in a three-bed compartment or €24 in a two-bed, and a compartment to yourself is €48. Class ties your hands: couchettes sell only with a second class ticket, singles only with a first. Book ahead in summer, because sleepers and four-berth couchettes go well before seats when Serbians head for the coast.

You can book all of it, beds included, at tickets-zpcg.me. Payment issues the ticket and the QR code goes to the email address you gave at checkout. ŽPCG does not allocate car or berth numbers online, and the crew hands them out on board. If you have paid for a couchette or a sleeper berth, check that what arrives names the bed you paid for rather than a plain seat, and contact ŽPCG at info@zpcg.me before you travel if it does not.

Interrail and Eurail in Montenegro

Montenegro is covered by the Interrail and Eurail Global Passes. There is no Montenegro One Country Pass, unlike neighbouring Serbia, so a Global Pass is your only option.

For most travellers, buy a ticket and keep the pass day. The longest journey in or out of the country costs €23.80 and a Bar to Podgorica hop €2.80, less than a pass travel day is worth on almost any itinerary. A pass covers the ticket but not the Belgrade reservation, which both companies treat as mandatory and neither sells through self-service. You arrange it at a Montenegrin station or by email to ŽPCG. Use a pass day here only if Montenegro sits inside a long continuous run of pass travel.

Practical tips for travelling by train in Montenegro

Leave a wide margin after the Belgrade train. Arrivals an hour and a half to four hours behind schedule are normal on that route rather than exceptional, so do not book a ferry, a flight or a last bus tight against the timetable.

Bring your own food and water for the long run north. There is no catering on the Belgrade trains in either direction, and you should not count on a working power socket, so carry a power bank. Older compartment stock without air conditioning still appears on domestic services, which is worth knowing in July.

One address to note: several pass and guide sites still link the old ŽPCG website, zcg-prevoz.me, and that link no longer gets you there. The secure version of it, which is the one Interrail publishes, is served with a certificate belonging to zpcg.me, so a browser stops on a security warning rather than the timetable. Go to zpcg.me yourself, and to zpcg.me/en/kontakt for contact details. That is where the timetables and fares live, and it is the page to check before you fix any plan around a Montenegrin train.