About this journey

Villa Opicina sits at the edge of the Karst Plateau, where the line begins its descent from the limestone uplands toward the Slovenian interior. The route follows the Ljubljana–Sežana line, part of the historic Spielfeld–Trieste railway — a double-track, electrified main line that threads through Italy, Slovenia and Austria. Its origins lie in the mid-19th century: the Austrian Southern Railway, built by the state-owned k.k. Südliche Staatsbahn, completed the Vienna–Trieste connection when its final section opened on 27 July 1857.

Sežana, around 80 km from Ljubljana, marks the border crossing between Italy and Slovenia — a role it has held since 1947. The station itself opened in 1857, and the town grew from a small village into the principal settlement on the Karst Plateau largely because the railway was built beside it. Beyond Sežana, the line crosses the Ljubljana Marsh on an embankment 2,400 m long and up to 15 m high, an engineering solution the original builders completed when this section opened on 20 November 1856. The journey ends at Ljubljana railway station, a terminus whose earliest structure was completed on 18 April 1848 and which is currently undergoing a major expansion costing around 167 million euros, with completion planned for 2026. The ride moves from open karst terrain through marshland to a city station actively transforming itself.