About this journey

The journey departs from Zagreb Glavni kolodvor, a Neoclassical station building 186.5 m long, whose construction was authorised in 1890 and completed in 1891–1892. It stands as a protected cultural monument and the largest station in Croatia, its scale reflecting the rapid expansion of rail traffic that followed the opening of the continuous Zagreb–Rijeka line in 1873.

From Zagreb the route runs south-west on electrified track through the Croatian interior, descending gradually toward the karst landscapes of the Gorski Kotar region. The line remains under electric wire all the way to Ogulin, where traction changes for trains continuing beyond.

Ogulin station marks a significant operational divide. The town sits at 323 m above sea level in the Ogulin-Modruš valley, the fifth-largest karst valley in Croatia at 60 km², with the Velika Kapela massif and Klek peak at 1,181 m visible to the west. Here, electric traction ends: trains heading onward to Dalmatia exchange locomotives before joining the M604 Lika railway, a 220 km single-track, unelectrified line whose construction began in spring 1913 and whose first 27 km, from Ogulin to Plaski, opened on 14 October 1914. The contrast between Zagreb's grand Neoclassical terminus and Ogulin's role as a quiet traction-change junction captures the range of this relatively short but infrastructurally consequential corridor.