Starting in December this year, Slovakia's fastest trains will no longer stop in one of the largest towns in the Váh river valley. The Ministry of Transport has confirmed: the Tatran express train will pass through Považská Bystrica without stopping.
The Slovak Ministry of Transport wants to reduce the travel time between Bratislava and Košice by 26 minutes, to about 5 hours. To achieve this, long-distance trains will make fewer stops. As spokesperson Petra Polačiková explains, in modern Europe, fast trains only stop at major stations; otherwise, they cannot travel at their maximum speed of 160 km/h.
By the way, this is not the first speed increase: since August 2025, after the construction of the Hanovce passing loop on the Poprad–Vydrník section, the Kriváň train reduced its travel time to Bratislava by 28 minutes and to Košice by 23 minutes. Reducing stops is the next logical step.
ZSSK (Slovak Railway Company) says the town will not be cut off from the railway. Instead, passengers are offered:
Hourly regular rýchliky (fast trains) to Žilina (the same ones that previously ended in Púchov due to repairs at the Žilina hub will now go to Žilina again).
In Žilina, passengers can change to long-distance trains in both directions. They assure that the connections are coordinated so that passengers lose almost no time when traveling west.
Direct service to Prague will be restored after track repairs.
ZSSK also promises to introduce new KISS electric trains on the route, which should make travel more comfortable.
Residents of Považská Bystrica disagree. The petition committee demands that the Tatran train continue to stop at the station. About 2000 signatures were collected on the first day.
Initiator Peter Lengyel says the town is a transport hub, and without the express trains, thousands of people will lose fast connections to Bratislava and Košice. According to his calculations, each trip will take about an hour longer. If the railway becomes less convenient, people will switch to cars, which goes against the goal of developing ecological transport.
By the way, without the direct Tatran train, the travel time to Bratislava, according to Lengyel, will return to the level of about 25 years ago, despite all the investments in infrastructure.
Besides Považská Bystrica, the cancellation of the stop in Púchov is also being discussed, but there are no official decisions yet.
