5 hours on Georgia’s BRUTAL mountain train…

    Today I travel on an old Soviet loco-hauled train in Georgia, complete with a very outdated interior, as our 50 year old train slowly battles its way over the challenging inclines of the Surami Pass!

    Journey Details:
    Origin: Tbilisi Central
    Destination: Kutaisi-1
    Company: Georgian Railway (GR)
    Train: GR VL10/VL11 + Seated Carriage
    Accommodation:
    Time: Second Class Seat (2nd)
    Distance: 217 kilometres / 135 miles
    Price: 9.00 ₾

    Find me elsewhere:
    https://instagram.com/superalbstravels/
    https://twitter.com/superalbs/
    https://bsky.app/profile/superalbs.bsky.social

    Share.

    27 Comments

    1. I took this train around 2 years ago, but the other way around. It was quite an experience, with some lovely views!

    2. Great video bro, but tie intro music was a bit too loud to me, made it a but hard to follow the spoken audio. Please consider leaving a bigger volume difference between the 2 for non native speakers

    3. Yay another Superalbs Georgia vid! Also I would like to add, the Rioni transfer is actually a recent change from a few months ago, before that, the trains ran directly to Kutaisi. But additionally, they just announced that the direct route will be coming back soon lol.
      Also, are you planning on riding the newly reopened Tbilisi-Baku train?

    4. As an Georgian I don’t know if you’re lucky or not but Georgian railways is going under a massive reconstruction plan completely abandoning these carriages and locomotives the goverment didn’t announce what are they buying but they said something big

    5. Industrial strength toilet paper made me laugh 😀
      I've ridden one of these sleeper trains to Yerevan once, it was a pretty pleasant experience.
      Would definitely like a ride on a double decker

    6. Having a Car 5 in a 4 car train is no odder than Avanti Pendolinos have a Carriage 'U' in a 9 or 11 car set! And the seats look much better than on the TransPennine Nova2s…..

    7. As far as I know, trains to and from Armenia are operated by South Caucasus Railways, Armenia's national operator and a wholly owned subsidiary of Russian Railways. I don't know why the locomotive also had the Georgian Railways logo on it.

    8. Russian paint schemes on electric locomotives related because more of VL10 and VL11 locokotives repaired by Chelyabinsk electric locomotive repair plant in Russia. Maybe this related because of rule pro-Russian government of Georgia related with oligarch Budzina Ivanishvili

    9. 7:16 Most definitions of "Europe" do not include the Caucasus Mountains, which would make Mont Blanc the highest peak in Europe.

    10. Nice video mate! Certainly a lot more fun than when I did that journey a year ago on a modern Stadler train. I just hope the infrastructure improvements will also mean that the Georgian Railways will finally expand services, as Kutaisi-Tbilisi is criminally underserved by train.