Rail in Slovenia: only new lines can improve it from here

In the Newsletter this week
Analysis: Rail in Slovenia: only new lines can improve it from here
Bullshit Meter this week: Crossrail 2 starts to be built this year
Good week: SNCF gets paths for its OUIGO service in Italy
Bad week: NEWAG sues Dragon Sector and SPS for exposing NEWAG's malevolence
Very bad week: Bombs at Duisburg Hbf
Photo of the week: Drone picture from Barcs, Hungary
Calendar: New ICE to the Belgian seaside

This is the seventh edition of my subscriber-only newsletter, sent every Friday at 14:00 CET.

Rail in Slovenia: only new lines can improve it from here

Stepping into the cross border InterCity train from Hungary to Ljubljana at Zalaszentiván this week felt like stepping back into the 1980s. Compartments, big armchair like seats, faux wood panelling, windows you can open and no air conditioning.

A little nostalgia is not too bad once in a while, but this is not a rail service you would want to take everyday. At least 20 new carriages are on order from Magyar Vagon for these services, and some new Vectron locomotives too. This investment in rolling stock for international long distance services follows a massive order (by Slovenian standards) from Stadler for EMUs and DMUs for national and regional cross border traffic.

This investment in a new fleet is no doubt one of the reasons for the impressive boost in passenger numbers on Slovenian rail - 25% more passengers in 2025 compared to 2024.

But the more fundamental problem is not the trains, but the tracks on which they run.

Pretty much all of the lines in Slovenia date from the Austro-Hungarian period, and follow rivers across this topographically challenging country. That means that Slovenia is a great place for rail tourism - sit by the window and watch the world go by and you will not be disappointed. Ljubljana - Zidani Most - Dobova (and onwards to Zagreb) (Route map) and Jesenice - Nova Gorica (Route map) are particular favourites of mine.

But if you travel across the country every day, on many routes the buses - running on highways built since Slovenia's EU accession - will get you there faster than the trains will.

My train this week managed the Celje - Ljubljana section (Route map) in 1 hour 25 minutes, with 6 stops. The fastest is 1 hour 8 minutes on a once-daily tilting train, with 1 stop. EuroCity trains typically take 1 hour 15 minutes.

In 1984, the fastest train between these two cities was 1 hour 16 minutes, non stop.

We've improved the trip time by 8 minutes in four decades.

OK, the track condition across Slovenia is not ideal, tracks pounded as they are by the numerous freight trains from Koper to central Europe, but that cannot distract from the central problem: the sinuous nature of the routes means it is impossible to increase speeds very much.

There is one new line project in Slovenia - the new Divača-Koper line is nearing completion, and the first test train with dignitaries on board ran this week. The new line, shorter and faster than the existing track to Slovenia's main port, will shave 20 minutes off a Ljubljana-Koper trip. The real motivation is not that though - it is to improve freight capacity, much of which will then end up on the Ljubljana-Celje line.

The other major project currently ongoing is complete re-building of Ljubljana station, giving the capital a modern and appropriately dimensioned terminus. For the moment taking a train in Ljubljana is somewhat chaotic, but building works on the new station proceed apace, and I am happy to see the roof canopies respect the brutalist concrete of the 1970s construction the new station is replacing.

So what is next for Slovenian rail?

There are ideas to straighten out some of the curves on some of the Divača-Ljubljana, and Ljubljana-Zidani Most sections, but after this week's trip across the length of Slovenia I am left wondering whether something more radical is called for - a genuine new rail corridor from Ljubljana to Maribor.

If Slovenia can build complete new motorways, surely it ought to also be able make a decisive step beyond its Austro-Hungarian era railway lines?

Bullshit Meter: Crossrail 2 starts to be built this year

After the success of Crossrail in London, there has been some debate about whether a second such line would be a good idea. TimeOut - a publication with a very tenuous relationship with the truth when it comes to any railway topic - reckons Crossrail 2 will start to be built this year.

Sadly this is bullshit - it is simply that the extension of the British Library is going to be built so as to be able to accommodate a future Crossrail 2. There are neither plans nor finance for a Crossrail 2 currently.

All previous Bullshit Meter posts can be found here.

Good week: SNCF gets paths for its OUIGO service in Italy

It needed to be sorted the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), but SNCF now has some paths to launch its OUIGO high speed service in Italy. All the background in French here, and the AGCM explanation is here.

However SNCF's press release is rather terse. AGCM has concluded SNCF would get a framework agreement lasting 10 years for 18 daily paths (so 9 return journeys). However SNCF says it wants 9 return journeys a day Torino-Milano-Roma-Napoli, and 4 returns a day Torino-Milano-Venezia, so 26 daily paths total. SNCF could of course bid for the extra paths it wants in the normal annual request process, but would have no guarantees for the extras, and states 26 is the minimum it needs to make its service viable.

SNCF intends to use a fleet of 15 Alstom built TGV-M double deck trains. While the multi-voltage version needed for Italy has not been approved to run yet, the first TGV-M trains are due to be running in France between Paris and Marseille from July, so I presume approval is not going to be the main headache. However SNCF states the service would require them to access existing maintenance facilities in Italy, something Trenitalia has struggled for in France (and forcing them to begin to built their own).

The question of course is how well is this going to work, whether with 18 or 26 paths?

There are already two high speed operators in Italy - Trenitalia, and its private rival Italo (SNCF even used to own a minority share there, before selling it). Both offer multiple classes of accommodation, from cheap seats up to the most deluxe you can get any European high speed train on a Trenitalia Frecciarossa 1000. SNCF will use the OUIGO brand, but whether this is OUIGO France style (all standard class, dense seating, no bar) or OUIGO Spain style (two classes, 2+1 seating in first, with a bar) has not been officially stated, although French style would be more likely. SNCF just promises the trains "will be very comfortable, with the coziest seats possible", whatever that means.

SNCF could instead have used these 15 TGV-M trains to strengthen cross border services from France to Italy, or even for other international routes where capacity is tight - to Germany or to Switzerland in the Lyria partnership for example.

But no, with Trenitalia in the French market, SNCF wanted to get into the Italian market. Time will tell if this approach is sensible.

Bad week: NEWAG sues Dragon Sector and SPS for exposing NEWAG's malevolence

So the NEWAG industrial espionage story rumbles on. I first wrote about this back in 2023. NEWAG is sueing the Dragon Sector (the IT company who discovered the location based blocking) and SPS (the maintenance firm who had employed Dragon Sector to help them determine the problem). All the news from Rynek Kolejowy here, where NEWAG is basically complaining that this is all a malicious effort by SPS and Dragon Sector to tarnish its reputation.

The problem however is that NEWAG has, as far as I can tell, been able to provide no proofs that Dragon Sector is at fault, and this just looks like malicious behaviour from them.

Very bad week: Bombs at Duisburg Hbf

Duisburg Hbf is in the process of being re-built, and this week they found not one but two World War II bombs while excavating to build the new platforms. Both had to be exploded in a controlled fashion, and the explosion of the second - a US made Zehn Zentner - caused some minor damage to some other tracks and platforms at the station, causing half a day of disruption to rail services.

All the trains are back running as normally as anything runs normally in Nordrhein Westfalen now.

The good news: no-one was injured.

Photo of the week: Drone picture from Barcs, Hungary

Not from the archive today, but a drone picture taken this week at Barcs (OpenRailwayMap) with my drone. There used to be a cross border line from here to Virovitrica in Croatia, but that line is long gone. Until I write about that on the #CrossBorderRail website, enjoy the red colours of a Siemens built MÁV DMU at the station, serving the Szombathely - Pécs InterRegio route.

Calendar: New ICE to the Belgian seaside

From 6th June there is a new ICE connection - from Köln to the Belgian coast - thanks Kees on Bluesky for the reminder:

Köln - Oostende used to be a classic InterCity connection, and one I took a lot as a teenager to get to school exchanges in Verviers (Belgium) and Koblenz (Germany). It is nice to see it return! It also serves Brugge and Gent.

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Photo Rights

All photos in this edition are taken by Jon Worth, except the leaked bomb explosion series, and the NEWAG EMU. Newag Impuls by M. M. Czarnecki, April 21 2015, CC BY-NC 2.0. Bullshit Meter images always have photo rights listed directly on the image.