About this journey

Poprad-Tatry station sits at the foot of the High Tatras and has served as a junction since 8 December 1871, when the Žilina–Poprad section of the Košice–Bohumín Railway opened. A metre gauge connection to the High Tatras via Starý Smokovec followed on 20 December 1908, cementing the station's role as a gateway between the mountain resorts and the main line. A modernisation costing SKK 858 million, carried out in 2006–2007, brought the station to its present form.

From Poprad-Tatry the journey continues southeast along Line 180, the Košice–Žilina railway, which forms Slovakia's main east–west rail corridor and part of Pan-European Corridor Va — a route stretching from Venice to Kyiv via Bratislava, Žilina, Košice, and Uzhhorod. Train services are operated by Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko (ZSSK), with infrastructure owned by Železnice Slovenskej republiky (ŽSR). The line arrives at Košice station, the eastern terminus of this corridor. That station first opened on 14 August 1860 with the inauguration of the Miskolc–Košice railway, linking the city with present-day Hungary; the current station building has been in place since 1973. Where the journey begins amid mountain approaches, it ends at a major regional hub with onward connections to Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine.