About this journey

Rijeka station — a 150 m neoclassical arcaded structure designed by Budapest architect Ferenc Pfaff and built between 1889 and 1891 — is where line M202 meets the Adriatic. The route north from here to Zagreb and beyond belongs to one of the oldest rail corridors in the region: the continuous line linking Budapest with Rijeka via Zagreb and Karlovac was completed in 1873, and Rijeka station itself opened on 25 June of that year.

From Rijeka the cab ride follows line M202 inland and upward, tracing the same alignment that has carried traffic along this corridor for over a century. The journey ends at Ogulin, a town set at 323 m above sea level in a karst valley of 60 km² framed by the Velika Kapela massif. Ogulin is also the electrification boundary on the Zagreb–Split corridor: electric traction ends here, and trains continuing south toward Dalmatia change to diesel locomotives before descending onto the unelectrified Lika line. The cab ride thus moves from a historic Adriatic terminus through the Croatian highlands to the point where the electrified lowland network gives way to the rugged, diesel-worked interior.