About this journey

Ljubljana railway station, where the journey begins, is one of Slovenia's oldest rail hubs — completed on 18 April 1848, a year before the Austrian Southern Railway connection reached the city. From here, the line south toward Kočevje forms part of the Grosuplje–Kočevje branch, threading through the hills and forests of the Slovenian interior.

The dense woodland that lines the final approach to Kočevje reflects the very character of the town: its name derives from a word meaning 'fir, spruce', a reference to the heavily forested landscape that the Gottscheer community, who first settled in the region around 1330 from Tyrol and Carinthia, spent some 600 years clearing. The line arrives at Kočevje at the foot of the Kočevski Rog karst plateau, on the Rinža River, in the historic Lower Carniola region of southern Slovenia. A former open-pit coal mine northeast of the town centre has since become Lake Kočevje, visible in the wider landscape. The journey moves from the busy regional interchange at Ljubljana station through quieter, forested terrain to a small town shaped as much by its trees as by its history.