Slovak Train Passengers Forced to Walk After Breakdown on Košice-Bratislava Route

Passengers aboard an express train traveling from Košice to Bratislava on Monday evening endured a difficult journey marked by a series of failures. The train, designated Ex 628, first suffered an air conditioning breakdown, leaving passengers sweltering in the carriages. The situation then worsened when the train came to a complete halt, forcing passengers to disembark and continue part of their journey on foot. The incident highlights ongoing reliability concerns with rail travel on one of Slovakia's busiest intercity routes, connecting the country's two largest cities. Rail transport in Slovakia is operated primarily by state-owned ZSSK (Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko), and service disruptions on the Košice-Bratislava corridor — a journey of roughly five to six hours — affect a large number of daily commuters and long-distance travelers.