I love taking trains. Even in America, where our train system is kind of crappy, and old, and things like “high speed rail corridors” get confused reactions such as “huh?”, I love taking the train. Sure, that one time I took Amtrak from L.A. to Seattle I was pestered by an over friendly, inebriated man who insisted again and again on offering me a swig from his flask, no matter how many times I said no. But really, it’s all part of the magic of a rail journey, right?
When I was researching trains in Albania and how to take them, inevitably the travel forums would be filled with foreboding warnings to just avoid the trains altogether. Apparently they were so totally awful that to even consider subjecting oneself to a ride on them would be willfully engaging in self destructive behaviors. The consensus was that they were best avoided unless one had some sort of point to prove.
From the hand wringing descriptions, I was picturing some sort of burned out husk of metal with little to no seats- mostly broken if present at all- precariously attached to the rails, filled with rats, crime lords, stray dogs, and spider webs. There may or may not have been a creepy old man playing a sad violin in a corner, covered in rags.
However, there was always one message about how “it’s an experience like none other” and “it wasn’t that bad, you guys, settle down and stop being so precious”. Now, I know two things about myself as a traveler: one, I have low expectations of punctuality, cleanliness, and comfort, and two, I don’t mind going off the beaten path and letting things get weird. This was precisely why I wasn’t disappointed in the reality of the beach in Durres. Because of that, I figured I could trust the random, lone dissenting opinions of internet strangers whom I had never met over the overwhelming majority.
And you know what? I was right. I loved taking the train between Tirana and Durres. Every last weird minute of it.
How to Take a Train from Tirana to Durres or Durres to Tirana
We wanted to take the train to Durres but we got to the train station in Tirana too late because we had the wrong time for departure. That meant we had time to take some pictures of the Tirana train station in all its glory before we hopped on the bus to Durres instead. We took the train BACK from Durres to Tirana, so don’t worry, you are in the right place for information.
Taking the train from Durres to Tirana was incredibly easy. Don’t let all those naysayers on forums fool you. For one, it is impossible to miss the Durres (I just typed “duress” instead, which might be apt considering the water quality) train/bus station, what with the enormous metal letters and all.
There was no one in the train station save two dudes working a little cafe and the woman working the ticket booth. She was barely visible behind a long, narrow, dark window (see below) which meant we thought it was closed at first. Anyway, for 70 leke (about .70 cents USD), plus the price of an ice cream (necessary on a hot day) I was ready to go.
So, at this point, after seeing the train station in Tirana and the train station in Durres, I am truly baffled as to what people are talking about when they bitch and moan about the trains in Albania. In fact, I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t more wild and crazy, after all the pearl clutching about how you need to avoid it.
I keep waiting for a marauding band of rabid dogs to blaze through, or the ceiling to fall down, or someone to give me a “ticket” hand written on a scrap of old paper. I mean, yeah, it’s old school, but seriously. We walked out on to the platform, where we were greeted with a train schedule and our first view of the trains.
There was a train off to the left that looked out of commission, and yeah, it also looked pretty beat up. Broken windows, graffiti, super old cars- high speed trains would not invite it to their hipster parties, for sure. But, all in all, whatever, right?
What are the Trains Like in Albania? A Guide with Pictures
Once we boarded the train, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was light years more comfortable than the ramshackle greenhouse oven train Bobby and I took from Ventimiglia to Venice, where we thought we would both die of heatstroke. So, yes, I’m saying this old Albanian train was better than an old Italian train, and I’ll fight you about it. See for yourself.
All seats are here and accounted for. There are no rats or spider webs, and certainly no sad violins played creepily in corners. Those are clean head rest covers. The curtains are in place. Maybe it was growing up in the dirty south of Texas, but frankly I see nothing out of order here.
The most glaring WTFityness of it was the broken windows. From what I’ve heard, they’re due to bored country kids seeing a gangly, slow moving (we’re talking 30 MPH, max) train come through their rural area. They then take the opportunity to welcome the only diversion they’ll have all day by pelting it violently with rocks and breaking whatever they can. Oh, kids.
On all the high speed trains Bobby and I took in France and Italy, there were always brochures playing up the convenience of having business meetings on board. Here Tiara and I are imagining what a similar brochure might look like in Albania. Okay, I’ll give you this- maybe it’s not the kind of place where business mergers happen. But if that’s your standard for train travel, I think that’s a pretty unreasonable bar.
Meeting Locals when Taking the Train in Albania
The reason I always prefer train travel over anything else is the opportunity to interact with local people, go slow, and have strange conversations with people I will never see again. It was a hot day, and an old man spied my liter of water. He gestured to it and pointed to his empty bottle, so of course I shared my water. In return he gave me a few figs.
The windows opened up all the way, and the doors were open in the front and back, so despite the weather I never felt like I was going to die of heat stroke- again, this is an improvement over the old school Italian train, where the windows reluctantly opened about 4 inches and then decided you’d had enough. There weren’t many people, so finding a seat was a non-issue, and the general atmosphere on board was relaxed, since the train takes a fair amount of time longer than the bus. Since you’re not really in a rush to get anywhere, why not share some figs with a random foreigner?
You Should Definitely Take the Train in Albania
Having taken both the bus and the train between Tirana and Durres, for me the train wins hand down. The train takes twice as long as the bus, because it goes half as fast, which is just very simple and obvious math. Anyone who is a train person takes trains for the journey and the experience, not just to get somewhere quickly, so be sure to come prepared to share water and accept figs. A bonus about the speed is that you could jump out, trot alongside it for a stretch, and then hop back on and all would be well. Note- when we took the train the bathrooms were locked. It’s about an hour journey, so hit the loo before you hop on.
The train wasn’t glaringly awful or dirty in any way, it was just old and weathered and a little worse for wear thanks largely in part to kids with rocks and spray paint. And yeah, the tracks take you through some pretty rundown rural areas, but that’s just the nature of the rural areas. I have seen some sketchy areas from the window of the Amtrak in America. After glancing out the window at around 3 a.m. I’m convinced the entire Omaha train station is where they filmed the creepy underwater scenes for any ship wreck movie ever.
I would absolutely take the train again, and I look forward to trying out longer trips. Once you see the driving around here, you feel grateful for a track that is nowhere near a furgon or an errant Mercedes plowing through cyclists and pedestrians.
Narrator’s Note August 2020: since the writing of this post the downtown train station in Tirana has been closed down. You must now use the train station in Kashar, about 8-10KM outside of Tirana. It’s easy to get busses or taxis there, and I would still recommend it for the experience of the train trip. The Durres train station has not moved. Just be prepared to take a bus trip to make the journey to the Kashar train station from Tirana to continue on to Durres. Or, naturally, on the return trip, be prepared to need a bus trip from Kashar back to Tirana.
