Belgrade Travel Forum

anyone have any suggestions on how i should go about the journey easily?

For r/t not the cheapest but maybe the fastest is via Budapest by train: Belgrade <--> Budapest is 26 Euro "Budapest special" and Budapest <--> Cluj is 42.60. One-way to Budapest from Belgrade is 15 Euro, but than Budapes-Cluj is 42.60 Euro.

There is of course a way via Vrsac and Timisoara avoiding Hungary completely (one-way should be between 20 and 30 Euro) - but Serbian Railway is known to send it's ugliest equipment into Romania while Hungary and Croatia gets much better cars from south. The Romanain cars coming to Serbia are such, you will definitly look for Serbian cars. :-( At least it was what I did see last year. Going also hope this year and will try to catch the Bucuresti-Beograd train with my camera.

you have 2 option:

option one:

BELGRAD - TIMISOARA [ROMANIA]
TIMISOARA - CLUJ NAPOCA:

you have daily train [nr' 361] which depart from belgrad train station at 16:20 and arr' to timisoara nord train station at 21:29.

from timisoara nord train station to cluj napoca you have jast the train
[nr' ACCELERAT 1942] which depart at 22:45 and arr' to cluj napoca at 05:29

the next train from timisoara to cluj napoca is at 05:55 the INTER CITY nr' 233
which arr' at 10:53 to cluj napoca.

option two:

belgrad - budapest
budapest - cluj napoca

you have 2 daily train from belgrad to budapest:

* train nr' [344 AVALA IC] dep' at 08:20 and arr' to Budapest-Keleti pu train station at 15:33.

* train nr' [340 BEOGRAD] dep' at 22:05 and arr' to Budapest-Keleti pu train station at 05:03. [jast a seat no sleep car!]

from budapest to cluj napoca you have 2 daily train:

* train nr' [644 ADY ENDRE] dep' at 13:20 from Budapest-Keleti pu train station and arr' to cluj napoca train station at 21:30.

* train nr' [646 CORONA] dep' at 15:20 from Budapest-Keleti pu train station and arr' to cluj napoca at 23:42.


all the best
david

David,

The train No. 340 has following car garniture:

- WLAB (ex-CIWL) run by ÖBB, it's an Austrian sleeper, the beds go for I think 22 or 28 euro and up
- BC run by ÖBB, it's an Austrian couchette, the bds go for somewhat under 20 Euro
- JZ/ZS couch - that's the seat car
- WLAB of BDZ - this is a Bulgarian sleeper, the beds are 11 Euro and up, there is a good chance the Bulgarian car does not arrive timely in Belgrade from Sofia, than it will be forwared by Avala next day morning.

timisoara - cluj napoca with ACCELERAT train cost 40 lei [12 euro] one way.
timisoara - cluj napoca with INTER CITY train cost 55 lei [16.6 euro] one way.

if you want to save mony the best option is to get to the first city in romania
timisoara/oradea in your case and from there to take a local train!

all the best
david

Hi

the info about No. 340 I get from :

http://www.elvira.hu

they are not updated ? if yes can you tell me please from where did you take the info about this train?

thanks in advanse
david



David,

The train No. 340 has following car garniture:

- WLAB (ex-CIWL) run by ÖBB, it's an Austrian sleeper, the beds go for I think 22 or 28 euro and up
- BC run by ÖBB, it's an Austrian couchette, the bds go for somewhat under 20 Euro
- JZ/ZS couch - that's the seat car
- WLAB of BDZ - this is a Bulgarian sleeper, the beds are 11 Euro and up, there is a good chance the Bulgarian car does not arrive timely in Belgrade from Sofia, than it will be forwared by Avala next day morning.

This is true, the Romanian international tariff is pretty bad. On the other hand there is an agreement between Romania and Hungary about 50% discount on r/t and I believe there is a similar agreement between Serbia and Romania even on one-way tickets. With "regular" (non-discounted) international tariff Belgrad-Cluj would be 43.20 Euro one-way. I strongly believe, it's at least 50% discount, so you should pay 21.60 Euro (or less) from Belgrade. On international ticket there is no Accelerat / IC /Express surcharge in Romania, thus it could be more beneficial sometimes to buy international tickets.

As Hungary increased theur tariff by 17% now but the international tariff remains, now it's straight cheaper buy international round-trip tickets from discounted countries than Hungarian domestic ticket!

David,

Elvira is not very keen on car info. This info is from UIC reservation info web site and I took thie train last year myself. Also you can notice, in HAFAS database there will be Vienna-Belgrade through cars not just with Avala but also with the evening train and also Vienna - Sofia through car.

OK, here is the UIC info:

http://www.uic.asso.fr/download.php/passagers/reservationoverview-MAV-2007.pdf, page 12:

According it we have cars wit reservation:

1) WLAB (sleeping car), ÖBB Vienna->Beograd
2) Bc (couchette), ÖBB Vienna->Beograd
3) second class couch
4) WLAB (sleeping car) JZ Budapest-->Bar
5) Bc (couchette) JZ Subotica-->Bar, optional
6) WLAB (sleeping car) BDZ Vienna -> Sofia

Thus, it looks like there is a Budapest->Bar direct sleeping car with Beograd->Bar daytime.

thanks a lot for the grait information!
david