Trains in Georgia: Routes, Tickets and Night Trains from Tbilisi

Georgian Railway is known for one excellent line, the double-decker Stadler from Tbilisi to Batumi on the Black Sea, plus a handful of slow regional trains and two overnight sleepers to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Trains here are cheap, calm and, on the right routes, better than any minibus. Here's what you need to know about the routes worth taking, fares and classes, booking tickets and the night trains.

Train routes from Tbilisi

Georgia's rail network is basically one line running west from Tbilisi to the Black Sea, with branches to Batumi, Zugdidi, Poti and Borjomi, plus the international lines south to Armenia and east to Azerbaijan. Everything starts or ends at Tbilisi Central Station. Here's every route a traveler is likely to ask about, with my honest verdict on each.

Slower regional trains also run to Poti and Ozurgeti, but few travelers need them. If your plan is Batumi, Kutaisi, Yerevan or Baku, the train is the answer. For most other places in Georgia it isn't, and I cover those at the end.

Tbilisi Central Station

Every train in this guide leaves from Tbilisi Central Station, which stands on Station Square, above the only stop where the two lines of the Tbilisi metro meet. The station building doubles as a shopping mall and market, so the first time you walk in it feels more like a mall with trains attached. The ticket office is on the ground floor.

It's also the last stop of bus 337 from the airport to the city center, which runs from about 7 am to 11 pm, so you can land in Tbilisi and head straight for a train west. I'd still leave a few hours of slack after a flight, since the bus takes about an hour in traffic.

Arrive 20 to 30 minutes before departure. Ticket sales close 10 minutes before the train leaves, and the walk from the street through the mall to the right platform takes longer than you'd guess.

Tbilisi to Batumi on the Stadler train

This is the train most visitors take, and it's the one I'd plan a trip around. Georgian Railway has run Swiss-built Stadler KISS double-deckers on the Batumi line since 2016: four carriages, one for first and business class and three for second class, all air-conditioned, with soft seats, folding tables and a socket at every seat. The ride is about 350 km and takes 5 to 5.5 hours, over the mountains of central Georgia, through green Imereti and, at the end, along the sea.

In summer there are usually 2 or 3 departures a day from Tbilisi, roughly at 07:15, 08:20 and 17:40, with the morning trains reaching Batumi around 12:30 and 13:40 and the evening one around 23:00. In winter the timetable thins out, so check railway.ge before you plan a day around a specific train. On the way it passes Khashuri and Zestafoni and stops at Kutaisi Airport, and the return trains from Batumi run at similar intervals.

The train ends at Batumi's station in Makhinjauri, about 6 km north of the seafront, not in the center. A Bolt from the station costs about 8 to 12 GEL and takes about 10 minutes, and a city bus costs 0.50 to 1 GEL and takes 15 to 20 minutes. I'd take the Bolt with luggage and the bus without. Once you're in Batumi, the boulevard and the old town are all walkable.

I'd pick the morning train every time. You see the whole country change out of the window, from the dry hills around Tbilisi to green Imereti and the tea country near the coast, and you still have the afternoon on the beach. The train is also the most reliable way to get from Tbilisi to Batumi: minibuses take 5 to 6 hours on a busier road, and domestic flights are often cancelled by weather.

Train ticket prices and classes

Fares in Georgia are set by Georgian Railway and don't rise as the train fills; what runs out is seats. The Stadler has three classes, and the regional trains have cheaper fares on slower trains.

I book second class on the Stadler. The seats are comfortable, the carriage is clean and air-conditioned, and the socket at your seat is the same one first class gets. First class is a quieter carriage with fewer people in it, which is worth the extra 20 GEL or so on a packed August weekend and not much otherwise. Business is for travelers who want the most space and the fewest neighbors, and on a 5-hour ride I've never felt the need.

Children under 5 ride free if they sit on a lap and don't take a seat. Children from 5 to 10 get 50% off in any class. TKT.ge adds a 1 GEL card fee to each booking.

How to buy train tickets on TKT.ge

TKT.ge is Georgian Railway's official booking site, and it's how I buy every domestic ticket. The timetable lives on railway.ge, so I check the trains there, then book on TKT.ge. You pick the route, date and train, choose a car and seat, and enter each passenger's name and passport number in the field marked "Identity #". Payment is by Visa or Mastercard, and the ticket arrives by email as a QR code or PDF that you show on your phone. Nobody needs a printout.

A few rules decide how smoothly it goes:

• Sales open about 20 days ahead and close 10 minutes before departure.
• Book 5 to 7 days ahead in summer, and earlier for weekends, public holidays and the evening Batumi train. Off-season, 1 or 2 days is usually enough.
• Passports with letters in the number sometimes fail in the app. Use the desktop version of the site and it goes through.
• Carry the passport you booked with. Every passenger needs a valid passport or ID on board, and it should be the one on the ticket.
• Refunds are possible up to 1 hour before departure. Cancel at least 15 hours ahead and you lose a 2.50 GEL commission plus the service fees; cancel later and you lose more.

The ticket office at the station sells the same tickets for cash, and it's the fallback if the website fights you. It's also where I'd go for anything unusual, like a bike, which travels as oversized cargo and needs sorting out at the office first. Carry some lari anyway: money in Georgia is mostly cards in Tbilisi, but the ticket office fallback, minibuses and rural transport all want cash, and 50 to 100 GEL in your pocket covers it.

Kutaisi Airport and Kutaisi by train

Kutaisi International Airport has its own station, Kopitnari, about 2 km from the terminal and linked to it by a shuttle. Since May 2022 every east to west train stops there, including the Stadlers between Tbilisi and Batumi, and the ride to Tbilisi takes about 3 hours 25 minutes. When you book on TKT.ge from the airport, the Tbilisi stop to pick is "Tbilisi-pass". There's a railway office in the arrivals hall if you'd rather buy on the spot.

The train drops you at Tbilisi Central, right by the Station Square metro. If you're flying in on a budget airline, I think the train beats the airport bus on comfort, but the bus beats the train on timing, and the Kutaisi Airport to Tbilisi choice comes down to when you land.

Kutaisi city has its own station, Rioni, about 10 km out of the center. It has 4 trains a day to Tbilisi, the fastest taking about 3.5 hours, for 14 GEL in economy. A Bolt from the center of Kutaisi to Rioni costs about 8 to 12 GEL, so add that and the ride out before you decide the train is cheaper than the hourly minibus.

On board: food, sockets, Wi-Fi and luggage

A day train in Georgia is an easy ride. Here's what to expect on the Stadler, which is the train you'll most likely be on.

The older express trains on the Zugdidi and overnight runs are simpler: air-conditioned cars with reclining chairs and folding tables, and not much else. The bistro on the Stadler has no hot meals, so I buy lunch before boarding from the market and shops in the station building: a khachapuri and a big bottle of water carry you to the coast.

Don't count on the Wi-Fi. Mobile data covers most of the route, so a local SIM or eSIM is the better bet, and Georgian SIM cards are cheap enough that I'd buy one on day one anyway.

Luggage isn't weighed or charged. Big suitcases go on the stands by the doors, smaller bags on the racks above the seats. Small pets can travel in a carrier with a vet passport, and bikes go as oversized cargo, arranged at the ticket office first.

Night trains: Yerevan, Baku and the summer Batumi sleeper

Georgia has two international night trains, and both leave from Tbilisi Central Station. They're the trains I'd recommend most to anyone with time, because you save a night's hotel and wake up in another country.

The night train to Yerevan

The sleeper to Yerevan leaves Tbilisi in the evening and arrives the next morning, a little over 10 hours later, with views of Mount Ararat on the approach. From October to May it runs every other night, leaving Tbilisi on odd-numbered dates and Yerevan on even ones; from June to September it runs nightly. Right now, in October, it's on the every-other-night timetable. International tickets are usually released 40 days before departure, and you buy them at the station or on the railway companies' websites. It's my favorite way from Tbilisi to Yerevan, because you board after dinner and wake up almost there.

The cars are the classic post-Soviet sleeper types, and the class you book changes the night a lot:

I'd book kupe and ask for a lower berth, which gives you the table and the storage under the seat.

The night train to Baku

The Tbilisi to Baku train came back on 26 May 2026 after six years off the tracks, and this time it runs with modern Stadler sleeper cars in comfort, comfort plus and luxury classes. It leaves Tbilisi at 21:00 and reaches Baku at 06:24, and the train from Baku arrives in Tbilisi at 08:41. Each journey includes about an hour at each border checkpoint. From 1 November 2026 the route goes up to four daily services, and the extra trains add a cheaper standard class in open-plan cars. Azerbaijan Railways sells the tickets on its own website, its app and at station offices, and the night train is now my first choice from Tbilisi to Baku.

The summer Yerevan to Batumi sleeper

In summer there's also a sleeper straight from Yerevan to Batumi, running every other night in each direction. The 2026 season ran from 14 June to 1 October, so it's a summer-only train and finished for this year. Georgian Railway also runs some overnight domestic trains west to Batumi and Zugdidi on the older express trains, mostly in seats rather than berths, so check the car type on TKT.ge before you assume you're getting a bed.

Slow trains: Zugdidi, Borjomi and the Kukushka

Away from the Batumi line, Georgian trains are slow, old and cheap. A few are still useful.

Tbilisi to Zugdidi. A daily express leaves Tbilisi in the morning, around 08:25, and reaches Zugdidi about 5 hours 45 minutes later; the return leaves Zugdidi in the late afternoon, around 17:25. Zugdidi is where most people change for the mountains, and the train plus a minibus is the comfortable way to get from Tbilisi to Mestia, since the direct minibus is 9 hours in one seat.

Tbilisi to Borjomi. Two slow commuter trains a day, one early in the morning (around 06:35 to 06:45) and one in the late afternoon or early evening, take 4 to 5 hours and cost 2 GEL. It's the cheapest ride in this guide and a slow look at central Georgia's villages. I'd ride it once for the experience, but I'd take a minibus if I only had a day for Borjomi.

The Kukushka, Borjomi to Bakuriani. The little narrow-gauge train that climbed through the forest from Borjomi to the ski resort of Bakuriani was the most charming ride in Georgia. It stopped running after COVID and hasn't carried passengers since. In 2026 the government announced plans to restore it, but there's no restart date, so don't build a trip around it yet.

Where trains don't go

Some of Georgia's most popular trips have no passenger train at all, and a few aren't worth taking by train even where one exists. Here's how I'd go instead.

For the mountains north of Tbilisi the minibus is the only public option, and the Tbilisi to Kazbegi trip is one of the easiest bus rides in the country. Kakheti's wine towns are the same: a 2-hour minibus to Sighnaghi beats any train itinerary. When I plan a longer loop, I put the train on the Batumi leg and the night trains, and use minibuses, shared taxis or a rental car for everything else, which is how getting around Georgia works for most travelers.