Trains in Georgia: routes, tickets, express

Georgia’s passenger trains all run under one operator: Georgian Railway. For most visitors the useful service is the double-decker Stadler on Tbilisi-Batumi. After track works it covers the coast in about 4 hours, and a II-class online ticket in September 2026 costs 35 GEL (I class 75 GEL). Sales open at most 20 days ahead on gr.com.ge, in the Georgian Railway app, or at a station counter.

That same Stadler used to take five and a half hours. In August 2026 Georgian Railway director general Lasha Abashidze said capital works on the line had cut the trip to four hours - and the live gr.com.ge timetable matches him: morning and evening runs clock in at roughly 4 hours 00-03 minutes. Here’s how the network is built, what the Batumi express costs, and which other routes still make sense.

How the passenger network works

The passenger map is short, but it covers the west of the country. From Tbilisi Central you’ll find trains toward the Black Sea (Batumi, Poti), toward Zugdidi, Ozurgeti, Borjomi, and regional legs via Kutaisi. An international Yerevan-Batumi service also crosses Georgia, but only in summer: in 2026 it ran from 14 June to 1 October, every other day rather than daily, and the gr.com.ge calendar shows no Yerevan-Batumi train after 1 October. The international train on the operator’s own timetable page is Tbilisi - Yerevan (371/372); on the gr.com.ge calendar we found it from 2 October 2026 (checked 17 October 2026), and either way that’s a separate Armenian booking story, so check your date.

City travel in the capital isn’t rail: metro, buses and Bolt live in the Tbilisi public transport guide. From the airport or your hotel to the station, a pre-booked car usually beats hunting a taxi with bags at rush hour.

The Tbilisi-Batumi express (~4 hours)

This is the train travellers actually mean when they say “the Georgia train”: a Stadler KISS double-decker with air-con, sockets and three fare classes on the tariff. Bus and car options on the same corridor sit in Tbilisi to Batumi.

Georgian Railway runs this line in two layers. The permanent one is just two pairs, 802/801 and 804/803, both flagged as daily in the operator’s general schedule. On top of that, summer brings extra Stadler runs, and in 2026 they came off the grid one pair at a time between mid-August and 9 October. The table shows the daytime grid the gr.com.ge booking system had open for sale on every travel date of its booking window when we went through it day by day (last check 17 October 2026; local time, Georgia is UTC+4), with the last day of each seasonal run marked:

Here’s how the thinning looks in practice. Until mid-August the summer grid also had a night pair: 812 out of Tbilisi at 00:30 and 811 out of Batumi at 00:35. The last of them left just after midnight on 16 August 2026, and when we checked on 13 September 2026 the booking calendar had no night pair on any date after that. On the same check, all eight daytime runs were on sale up to 15 September. From 16 September the early pair (806 out of Tbilisi, 805 out of Batumi) was gone, and three trains each way were left as far as the calendar reached, 2 October. Georgian Railway announces its summer extras in news notices, and the one of 5 June 2026 gives 808 and 807 a run from 16 June to 9 October 2026 inclusive. This pair kept to it: 9 October was its last day on the booking calendar, and when we checked again on 17 October 2026, only 802/801 and 804/803 were on sale for every date through 5 November. An announced end date for a summer extra isn’t a promise, though: the same notice had the night pair running to 30 September 2026, and it came off about six weeks early. Georgian Railway posted the 2026 extras as news notices on railway.ge on 5 and 30 June 2026, between one and eleven days before the new runs began, so that’s the place to look for any 2027 extras. Plan around 802/801 and 804/803, and open the card for your own date on gr.com.ge, where a date shows up once it’s inside the 20-day sales window.

There’s a second trap here. When we checked on 13 September 2026, the static general-schedule page on railway.ge still printed the pre-upgrade 5 h 35 min for 802 and 804, while the live gr.com.ge booking system sold those same trains at 4 h 01 min. If you meet two different journey times, trust the checkout screen, not the printed table on the operator’s site.

Stops on these Stadler runs are short (the operator’s timetable lists five standing stations on each), and one of them matters on its own: the Kutaisi Airport station, Kopitnari, is a scheduled stop on every run in both directions, and the booking system sells seats to or from Kopitnari on all eight. Handy if you’ve landed on a low-cost flight and you’re heading on to the coast or the capital. Kutaisi itself still needs a separate hop from Kopitnari: it’s about 20 km into the centre, roughly 20-30 minutes by taxi or shuttle.

What you’ll pay to Batumi

Georgian Railway’s official fare PDF (linked from the Local train page) gives a range per class rather than a single figure, and the range isn’t about the season or luck with the date: the low end belongs to an intermediate station, the high end to the full run to the coast. Riding Tbilisi - Batumi end to end, the counter fare is the top of the range:

• II class: 34 GEL (the PDF line reads 32-34)
• I class: 74 GEL (PDF: 70-74)
• Business: 124 GEL (PDF: 120-124)

Those lower 32 and 70 GEL figures aren’t a Batumi ticket at all - they’re the fare as far as Kopitnari, the Kutaisi Airport station, where the live system sells 33 and 71 GEL online. There is no 32 GEL ticket all the way to Batumi, so don’t budget for one.

Buying on the site adds a 1 GEL internet fee, which puts the full run at 35 / 75 / 125 GEL online. The booking system bears that out: searches we ran on 13 September 2026 for departures between 14 September and 2 October, in both directions, returned 35 GEL in II class and 75 GEL in I class on every run that still had seats in that class. Business didn’t show up on any of those dates - it’s on the tariff sheet, but a given date may not offer it, so read the classes in the results.

Child fares in the PDF sit at about half the adult rate. A child under 5 rides free if they don’t take a separate seat; ages 5-10 need a child ticket; from 10 the adult rules apply.

How to buy a ticket

Sales open no earlier than 20 days before departure - that’s the wording on Georgian Railway’s Information for passengers page, and the booking calendar ends right there: on 13 September 2026 the last departure date on sale was 2 October. Channels: gr.com.ge, the Georgian Railway mobile app, ticket offices and pay boxes. You’ll need a passenger ID number (for children under 14, a birth certificate or passport when available).

The sales system stops 10 minutes before departure. Boarding needs the ticket and an ID document. Lost or damaged tickets aren’t replaced.

Unused-ticket refunds (to the named passenger, with ID):

• 100% if you return it at least 15 hours before departure
• 85% if you return it 4-15 hours before
• 70% if you return it under 4 hours before

The commission fee isn’t refunded. In peak summer (June-August) II-class seats to Batumi go fast - buy on the day the window opens, especially Friday and Sunday runs.

If you’ve landed at night with luggage, a transfer to the station is usually calmer than decoding marshrutkas in your first hour in the country.

Other routes worth knowing

Batumi isn’t the whole map. From the same official PDF, ballpark counter fares look like this:

Zugdidi is the rail base for Svaneti onward by road. Poti is the port alternative when you want the west coast without Batumi’s resort pace. Borjomi is a short, cheap suburban hop. Ozurgeti doesn’t run daily: the operator’s general schedule marks trains 854/853 as “every second day”, so check the date as well as the clock.

Kutaisi deserves its own paragraph, because this is where most people trip up: there is no “Tbilisi - Kutaisi” train. Kutaisi’s central station sits on a dead-end stub off the main line, through westbound services never reach it, and no such train appears in the operator’s current schedule at all. You ride any westbound train and get off before the terminus: ordinary services stop at Rioni (about 20 minutes by taxi from the centre), the fast Stadler at Kopitnari, the airport station. Which one suits you, how long each takes and what the taxi costs from either station is worked through in Tbilisi to Kutaisi.

Check those legs on gr.com.ge for your date too: frequencies and clock times move more often than year-old blog tables admit.

Small practical details

Georgian trains leave on time. If the board says 08:05, be at the door early - don’t treat it as a soft target. Seats are assigned; the site and app let you pick a row. The Stadler’s upper deck gives you more window; the lower deck is closer to the exit with a suitcase.

Food on board is thin - pack water and a snack. The Stadler does have Wi-Fi, but don’t plan a work call on it. Pets and luggage have their own rules on the railway site - open the passenger section before you travel with a dog or an oversized bag.

Compare train and marshrutka like-for-like: 35 GEL and four hours in a seat against a cheaper but longer ride from Didube. A car lets you stop in Gori and Kutaisi, but you’re driving the full five-to-six-hour highway day.

What to pick

• Tbilisi-Batumi: take the Stadler when you can book inside the 20-day window. A morning train buys you a day by the sea; an evening one parks you on the coast overnight without burning daylight in the capital. Out of season there’s one morning train, 802 at 08:05: the summer extras at 06:30 (806) and 10:15 (808) finished for 2026, 806 on 15 September and 808 on 9 October, so check your date on gr.com.ge before you build a morning around any other time.
• West without the resort: Zugdidi or Poti in II class from 11 GEL - cheaper and calmer than riding the full Stadler just for a connection.
• A short rail day: Borjomi at 1-2 GEL if you simply want a train ride without a half-day plan.
• Night arrival into Kutaisi: the Stadler calls at Kopitnari right by the airport, so the train onward to the coast or the capital does exist - all you need to check is the time of the next one on your date. Getting into Kutaisi itself still means a bus, taxi or transfer.

Always confirm the ticket on gr.com.ge or at the counter on the day you buy: both the fare and the departure time live in the operator’s system, not in someone else’s table.