Poprad-Tatry railway station () is a

break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally canno ...

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated either on or close to a rail junction, where lines to two or more destinations diverge. Many junction stations have multiple platform faces to enable trains for multiple destinatio ...

serving the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Poprad Poprad (; ; ) is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatras, High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. The largest town of the Spiš region and the largest of all towns in the vic ...

, in the

Prešov Region The Prešov Region (, ; ), also Priashiv Region (, ), is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 13 districts (okresy) and 666 municipalities, 23 of which have town status. The region was established in 1996 and is the mos ...

, northeastern

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. Opened in 1871, the station forms part of the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

Košice–Bohumín Railway The Košice–Bohumín Railway (, , , , ) can refer to: *originally: A private railway company established in 1869 in Austria-Hungary. In 1924 the company was nationalised and put under the Czechoslovak State Railways. *nowadays: The main track of ...

, and is the junction between that line and the Poprad-Tatry–Plaveč railway, a standard gauge branch line. Poprad-Tatry is also the southern terminus of the

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

Tatra Electric Railway The Tatra Electric Railway (), colloquially Tatra Railway, is an electrified (1500 V direct current, DC) single track narrow gauge railway in the Slovak part of the Tatra mountains. It consists of two connected lines: * Poprad-Tatry railway sta ...

, and, as such, is a gateway to the

High Tatras The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains (; ; ,'' Vysoki Tatry''; ; ), are a mountain range along the border of northern Slovakia in the Prešov Region, and southern Poland in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. They are a range of the Tatra Mountains ...

mountain range, a popular tourist destination. The station is currently owned by

Železnice Slovenskej republiky Railways of the Slovak Republic (, acronym: ''ŽSR'') is the state-owned railway infrastructure company of Slovakia. The company was established in 1993 as the successor to the Czechoslovak State Railways () in Slovakia following the dissolut ...

(ŽSR); train services are operated by

Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko, a.s. (ZSSK) (') is a Slovak state-owned passenger train company based in Bratislava. In 2002 a company Železničná spoločnosť was established as a successor of personal and cargo transport part of the ...

(ZSSK).

Location

Poprad-Tatry railway station is situated at Jiřího Wolkera, at the north western edge of the town centre.

History

The station was opened on 8 December 1871, together with the rest of the

Žilina Žilina (; ; ; ; Names of European cities in different languages: U-Z#Z, names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the List of cities ...

–Poprad section of the

. Only four days later, upon the inauguration of the section to

Spišská Nová Ves Spišská Nová Ves (; ; ) is a town in the Košice Region of Slovakia. The town is located southeast of the High Tatras in the Spiš region, and lies on both banks of the Hornád River. It is the biggest town of the Spišská Nová Ves Distric ...

, it became a

through station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such a ...

. With the commissioning of the first part of the Poprad-Tatry–Plaveč railway in 1889, the station was transformed into a

junction Junction may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Junction'' (2012 film), an American film * ''Junction'' (2024 film), an American film * ''Jjunction'', a 2002 Indian film * ''Junction'' (album), a 1976 album by Andrew Cyrille * Junction (E ...

. The metre gauge connection with the High Tatras was achieved on 20 December 1908, via

Starý Smokovec Starý Smokovec (; ; ; ) is a part of the town of Vysoké Tatry in northern Slovakia in the Tatras. Starý Smokovec is a popular resort for skiing and hiking. It also forms the junction of the Tatra Electric Railway train line, connecting P ...

. On 25 March 1942, the first deportation of Slovak Jews left Poprad station for the

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

death camp. The train that departed that day was carrying about 1,000 Jewish girls and young women. Most of the subsequent transports of Slovak Jews similarly departed from Poprad. By the end of 1942, when the transports were halted, over 58,000 Jews had been deported from Slovakia to Poland. Following a renovation in the 1980s, the station reached its present form as a two level

interchange station An interchange station or a transfer station is a train station for more than one railway route in a public transport system that allows passengers to change from one route to another, often without having to leave a station or pay an additional ...

. An SKK 858 million modernization and extension of the 1980s renovations was carried out in 2006–2007.

Train services

Poprad-Tatry railway station is the junction of the following Slovakian railway lines: *180 Košice–Žilina (part of the Košice–Bohumín Railway) *183 Poprad-Tatry–Starý Smokovec–Štrbské Pleso (part of the Tatra Electric Railway) *185 Poprad-Tatry–Plaveč Line 180 forms part of

Pan-European Corridor Va Pan-European can refer to: * Pan-European identity * Pan-European corridors ** Pan-European Corridor X ** Pan-European Corridor Xa * Pan European Game Information * Pan-European Institute * Pan-European nationalism * Pan-European Oil Pipeline * Pa ...

, which runs from

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

in Italy to

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

in Ukraine, via

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, Košice and

Uzhhorod Uzhhorod (, ; , ; , ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality on the Uzh, Uzh River in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistan ...

Interchange

The station offers interchange with local buses.

Services

References

External links

Poprad-Tatry railway station on vlaky.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poprad-Tatry railway station Poprad Railway stations in Prešov Region Railway stations in Slovakia opened in 1871 Buildings and structures in Prešov Region Holocaust locations in Czechoslovakia