The Lillafüred Forest Railway

The two tunnels that make this ride were not dug for the railway. They were dug to get it out of a hotel's way.

The line was built in nine months in 1920 to bring timber down out of the Bükk hills to Miskolc, and its first passengers, in 1923, sat on benches in open wagons. Then the state decided to build a palace hotel at Lillafüred, on a crag above Lake Hámori. Between 1925 and 1929 the hillside was reshaped around it: the spoil became terraced hanging gardens, the Szinva stream was sent over the rock as a new waterfall, the mouth of the Anna Cave was moved, and in 1927 the railway's halt was shifted south, with a tunnel at each end of the new Lillafüred station and an underpass up to the hotel. By 1929 the line was carrying some 300,000 passengers a year and had a new name, the Lillafüred State Forest Railway — LÁEV.

It still runs, on 760 mm gauge, 14 kilometres from the edge of a Miskolc housing estate to the woods at Garadna, in a little over an hour. Mk48 diesels, a class found all over Hungary's narrow gauge, pull open coaches of 1925 and 1928 as well as closed ones, and one of the engines was rebuilt in 2010 as a hybrid. Freight ended in 1990; the forestry company Északerdő now runs the line for the people going to the lake, the caves and the castle.

The trains start at Miskolc-Dorottya utca, a small terminus in Diósgyőr beside a housing estate and the stop on tram line 1 named for the railway. For the first three kilometres the line runs between gardens, the Diósgyőr tower blocks and the hills to the north, past Majláth, where the railway keeps its yard and its last steam engine stands on a plinth. Beyond Papírgyár, the paper mill, the branch to Mahóca turns off — it carries only special trains now — and the main line goes into the forest of the Szinva valley.

Bridges, rock and the hotel

This is the stretch the line was hard to build. The first engineers asked to plan it declined because of the ground, and the forest engineer Ferenc Modrovich took the line across the Mély-völgy ravine on a concrete viaduct, 64 metres long, standing above the treetops. The track then threads cliffs and narrows above the stream to the passing loop at Puskaporos, where the two trains of a busy day cross, and dives into the first tunnel.

It comes out at Lillafüred, where everything is the work of the late 1920s. The station sits opposite the Palace Hotel, with an underpass up to it, and between its two tunnels — 112 and 120 metres — the train waits about seven minutes. This is where most passengers get off, for the hanging gardens, the waterfall, the caves and the lake.

Lake Hámori and the Garadna valley

Out of the second tunnel the line runs along the shore of Lake Hámori, the reservoir dammed around 1815 to drive the ironworks, and crosses the Görbe híd, the curved bridge. The halt at Fazola-kohó is named for Frigyes Fazola's blast furnace of 1813, and the one at Pisztrángtelep for the trout farm laid out in 1932; it was added when the line was rebuilt from 2020. The valley closes in, and the track ends at Garadna, a clearing in the woods 25 minutes from Lillafüred.

Between the termini and Lillafüred, trains stop only if someone is getting on or off. Tell the crew in good time if you want one of the small halts.

The locomotives and coaches

Most trains are worked by Mk48 diesels in brown, red, green or blue. One, D02-508, came new from the factory in 1961 and still runs. The blue Mk48 2021 was built by the BoBo company in 2010 from a scrapped Mk48 as a diesel-electric hybrid, and others of the fleet have since been rebuilt the same way. Two small C-50 diesels work the Mahóca specials. Behind them are open coaches from 1925 and 1928 and closed ones, including four Bax coaches that came from the Budapest Children's Railway in 1991.

That link runs both ways. In 1929 the line bought two Ganz railcars for the hotel trade; in 1948–49 the Communist Party had them sent to the new Pioneer Railway in Budapest. They came back years later in poor condition, and one, A02-602, has since returned to Budapest for good: it has run on the Children's Railway as a heritage train since 1990.

The LÁEV runs all year, but its timetable changed more than a dozen times in 2026, with the seasons and the holidays. In summer there are trains every day, and at weekends extra shuttles between Lillafüred and Garadna; in winter the line runs at weekends only. Every train calls at Lillafüred, where it waits about seven minutes, and the smaller halts are request stops. There is nothing to book: buy at the ticket office at Dorottya utca or Lillafüred and board. Groups of 20 or more must register a working day ahead.

Autumn — 14 September to 1 November 2026

To Garadna:

Back to Miskolc:

¹ Weekends and holidays only, but daily from 23 October. ² Weekends and holidays only, until 24 October. No trains run on Mondays from 14 September to 19 October, and from 23 to 30 October every day keeps the weekend timetable.

High summer — 4 July to 23 August 2026

To Garadna:

Back to Miskolc:

³ Weekends and holidays only (and on 8, 20 and 21 August). A dash: the train starts or ends at Lillafüred.

Winter — weekends only

From 5 January to 2 April 2026 the line ran on Saturdays and Sundays only: four trains from Miskolc at 09:30, 11:00, 12:30 and 14:00, and four back from Garadna, the last at 15:15. The timetable from 2 November 2026 had not been published when this page was checked, so look it up before you go.

As of October 2026, from Északerdő's own timetables — the current one is on the LÁEV website (opens in a new tab), and every season's is listed at eszakerdo.hu (opens in a new tab).

Getting to the start

Dorottya utca is on tram line 1 from Miskolc-Tiszai, the main railway station; get off at the stop named for the railway, LÁEV – Lillafüredi kisvasút. Bus 1 from the station goes there too, to the Diósgyőri gimnázium stop.

Tickets are sold at the ticket offices at Dorottya utca and Lillafüred, which take cards as well as forints. There is one fare for any distance: a single covers a journey between any two stations without a break, and a return is simply two singles, usable in either direction. Every ticket is valid only on the day it is bought, so if you plan to get off at the caves or the furnace and carry on, the day ticket is the one to buy.

Children from 3 to 14 pay reduced fares, and under-threes ride free. Bicycles and dogs need their own ticket, 1,500 Ft each way; dogs must be muzzled and leashed. Special trains, such as the Mahóca branch excursions, have their own prices. From the operator's fare table, valid from 1 March 2026.

No rail pass covers the LÁEV. Interrail's table of railway companies lists MÁV, GySEV, RegioJet and the international carriers for Hungary, and no forest railway. Everyone pays the operator's fare.

A pass still gets you to Miskolc. MÁV's trains to Miskolc-Tiszai are covered by an Interrail Hungary Pass or a Global Pass; regional and Interregional trains need no reservation, and InterCity trains need one. From the station, tram line 1 runs to Dorottya utca, outside the pass.

For this trip alone a pass is not worth buying. It pays only if Miskolc is one stop on a longer journey through Hungary or beyond.

Checked October 2026 against Interrail's table of railway companies (opens in a new tab) and the LÁEV's fares (opens in a new tab).

The line is short, and nearly everything worth getting off for is close to one of its stations: a royal castle at the Miskolc end, the hotel's gardens, waterfall, caves and lake at Lillafüred, and the ironworks that made the valley at Fazola-kohó.

Stay in Miskolc, where the main-line trains arrive, or up at Lillafüred in the hotel the railway was moved for.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about The Lillafüred Forest Railway. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.