Early morning train from Vilnius to Kaunas. And then it gets messy.
Prior to the COVID pandemic there was a train on weekends here, with the aim of making the connection daily. Due to the pandemic that never happened, although I hear there are plans to re-instate Kaunas (LT), via Suwałki (PL) to Białystok (PL) this summer – there is more about what used to happen on Seat61. Given this is the first part of the prestigious Rail Baltica route it strikes me that not running anything is an odd one! So in short this is either a missing service – a border with no passenger trains, with plans to run them in future or it is a border with a very limited passenger service. I’ve even initiated an Open Letter about this one!
@WorldExplorer80 helped out a little on Twitter, pointing me towards some timetables for local buses in the regions either side of the border. The best option seems to be to take the bus from Marijampolė to Sangrūda, close to the border on the Lituanian side, and then cycle from there.
Marijampolė to Suwałki is the only viable way to cross the border between Poland and Lithuania – it avoids Kaliningrad (Russia) to the west, and Belarus to to the east.
Train on to Warszawa, and overnight there.
| Day / Date | Thursday 23 June |
| Departure | Vilnius |
| End | Warszawa |
| Trains | 3 |
| Rail km | 487.1 |
| Bike legs | 1 |
| Bike km | 39.7km (Sangrūda to Suwalki) |
| Borders crossed | LT-PL – Suwalki |
| Events | No events planned – Warsaw event is the following morning |
Data here is indicative. The Google Sheet for the trip is the always-updated definitive version.
On the day itself, live updates will be posted here.
The map below is an image of the route for this day. You can alternatively see access whole route with more controls on umap here.
Images used in this post
Phil Richards
07.05.18 Suwałki SA133-019 and SA133-011
May 7, 2018
CC BY-SA 2.0
All other photos taken by Jon Worth, can be re-used under the same terms as the content on this site.
