Briggsy230
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 5 years ago
Looking to travel from Plovdiv, Bulgaria to Istanbul by train at the beginning of August this year. There seems to be a lot of varying information about train travel in that area. I think that it may be changing because of construction on the line? Is there a regular train run between the 2 cities? Is it a night train? And will we need to purchase the tickets in Plovdiv personally or are we able to do it online somewhere? I believe that the train does still only go as far as Halkali outside of Istanbul, then you have to take a shuttle bus into the city. Is that information still current? Thank you very much for your time!
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi and welcome to railcc!
There is a daily night train from Sofia to Istanbul/Halkali which also stops at Plovdiv.
You can read all information about this service in the blog: [ux]https://rail.cc/blog/bucharest-sofia-istanbul-train/[/ux]
Tickets are not available online; the best option you have if you want to buy tickets in advance is to contact RILA: [ux]http://www.bdz.bg/en/railway-ticket-agency-rila/railway-ticket-agency-rila.html[/ux]
Anyway it is no problem to buy tickets locally.
The night train indeed runs to Halkali only but there is a shuttle bus service available to Sirkeci station in the city centre.
Let us know about your experience on this service so that we can update the blog if needed. :)
Flo