In mid-July this year, the first tourist train on the Sarajevo-Vares route was launched, and so far this train has run three times and transported roughly 500 passengers.
The Sarajevo-Vares tourist train is a project of the Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the Municipality of Vares, and the Tourist Board of the Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDC), whose goal, as they stated, is to promote the natural beauty, rich cultural and historical heritage, industrial legacy, and local gastronomy of this area.
In the selection of the Chamber of Economy of the FBiH for the best tourism move of this summer, the project of introducing the Sarajevo-Vares tourist train received, together with three other projects, recognition for the Best Move of the Year in the Summer 2025 Season in FBiH.
This tourist train runs exclusively on the request of the train’s lessee, which means it is not included in the regular timetable of the Railways of FBiH. The lessee, in agreement with the Railways, determines the date and time when the train departs from Sarajevo and when it returns from Vares. The lessee usually, in cooperation with a tourist agency, determines the full content of the trip. This most often includes: organizing the trip by train from Sarajevo to Vares, touring Vares’s cultural and historical landmarks accompanied by a tourist guide, an organized bus trip to the royal town of Bobovac or the Wigwam picnic site in the village of Zarudje, lunch, return to the Vares Railway Station, and the return trip to Sarajevo.
“The Sarajevo-Vares tourist train is very suitable for organized visits by elementary, high school, and university students to the royal town of Bobovac, as well as for mountaineering associations whose members wish to visit Mount Perun, because hiking trails leading to Perun are located only 300 meters from the Vares Railway Station. The train travels through beautiful nature, along the valley of the Stavnja River. The railway line is about 50 kilometers long, passing through 20 tunnels and over 11 bridges,” the Railways of FBiH said.
They also state that the train is powered by an old diesel-hydraulic locomotive and consists of three adapted Swedish cars, with a total of 180 seats.
From the launch of this train on July 19th, 2025, until today, the Sarajevo-Vares tourist train has run a total of three times and transported around 500 passengers.
Aside from this tourist train, no other passenger trains operate to Vares, meaning they are not planned in the timetable of the Railways of FBiH.
However, during 2025, freight trains of the Railways of FBiH have continuously operated on this line, transporting ore from Vares to the Port of Ploce (in the past two months, these have been two trains per week with 30 containers full of ore each, as well as two weekly trains delivering empty containers for loading), Klix.ba writes.
