About this journey

Štúrovo station sits at 109 metres above sea level on Slovakia's southern border, where the Danube plain meets the start of the Bratislava–Budapest main line. The town, known as Párkány until it was renamed in 1948 after the Slovak national revival figure Ľudovít Štúr, became a station on that line in 1850. By 1975 it had grown into the second largest station in Slovakia, reflecting its role as a major railway border crossing between Slovakia and Hungary. Leaving the station, the journey passes the large pulp and paper mill that opened in 1968, and the Mária Valéria Bridge comes into view — a crossing to Esztergom on the Hungarian side of the Danube first opened in 1895, destroyed by retreating German troops on 26 December 1944, and not reopened until 2001.

The line runs northwest along the Bratislava–Budapest corridor, following the Danube valley toward the Slovak capital. The journey ends at Bratislava main railway station, situated on the edge of the city's Old Town — a marked contrast to the low-lying border town and open riverside landscape where it began.