Algiers to Tizi Ouzou

The railway into the Kabylie leaves the main line at Thénia, east of Algiers, and runs through the hills and up the valley of the Sebaou to Tizi Ouzou, the region's capital, with the Djurdjura across the southern skyline. It was built by the Compagnie de l'Est algérien and reached Tizi Ouzou in May 1888; a century later it had fallen silent, its trains suspended in 1996.

What runs on it now is almost entirely new. The line was closed in 2013 and rebuilt — three stations moved, four new ones built, the track renewed under ERTMS signalling — then electrified and carried 14 kilometres further east to Oued Aïssi, and it reopened in 2017. Stadler's FLIRT electric units, the same trains as on the Algiers suburban network, run up the branch from Thénia up to eleven times a day, and three of them start from Agha in the heart of Algiers.

It is a short ride and a cheap one — under an hour from Thénia, 150 dinars from Algiers — and a direct way into the mountains east of the capital: Tizi Ouzou for the city and its cable car, and beyond it the villages, forests and coast of the Kabylie.

The through trains start at Agha and run out along the suburban main line past El Harrach and the eastern edge of the Mitidja to Thénia, where the branch to Tizi Ouzou leaves the line to Constantine a few hundred metres east of the station. Only three trains a day come through from Agha; for the others, take a suburban train to Thénia and change there.

Thénia to Tizi Ouzou

The branch is single track, laid on a formation wide enough for a second, and it follows the N12 road the whole way, crossing it again and again. Si Mustapha, Issers and Bordj Menaïel come in the first quarter of an hour, then Naciria and Tadmaït, the two longest tunnels on the line named for them — 1,500 and 864 metres. From Tadmaït the railway runs up the valley of the Sebaou by Draâ Ben Khedda, the old Mirabeau. Between Thénia and Tizi Ouzou there are nine viaducts, nearly three kilometres long between them, and four tunnels of about the same total length. Tizi Ouzou is reached in about forty minutes.

To Oued Aïssi

East of Tizi Ouzou the railway is new, opened in June 2017: 14 kilometres with three tunnels and eight viaducts. It calls at Kef Naâdja, the station in the Nouvelle Ville that forms one hub with the bus station and the lower terminus of the city's cable car, then at Oued Aïssi-Université, and ends at Oued Aïssi, under an hour from Thénia. Fuel trains for the Naftal depot at Oued Aïssi use the line too. Extending it a further 25 kilometres towards Tamda and Azazga has been studied since 2016.

The train

The branch is worked by Stadler FLIRT electric units, the Swiss trains of the Algiers suburban network. SNTF ordered 64 of them in 2006; the first were delivered in May 2008 and carried passengers from May 2009. They run on the branch exactly as they do around Algiers, with seats in bays of four, and the fare is the same in any seat. The photograph at the top of this page shows one of them, 541-115, at Zéralda on the western side of Algiers in June 2026.

Then and now

At the start of the twentieth century, three trains a day ran from Algiers to Tizi Ouzou and took about three hours and twenty-five minutes. The fastest through train now takes an hour and twenty-six minutes.

Up to eleven trains a day run each way between Thénia and Oued Aïssi, from dawn to early evening. Three of them run through from Agha in Algiers; for the rest, the suburban trains from Agha to Thénia run about twenty times a day and take just under an hour.

Algiers and Thénia to Oued Aïssi — a selection

Further trains leave Thénia at 05:15 (not Fridays), 08:05, 12:05 (not Fridays), 15:05 (not Fridays) and 16:10. On train 105, the stops after Thénia are Si Mustapha 07:36, Issers 07:40, Bordj Menaïel 07:45, Naciria 07:52, Tadmaït 07:58, Draâ Ben Khedda 08:03, Tizi Ouzou 08:11 and Oued Aïssi-Université 08:20.

Oued Aïssi to Thénia and Algiers — a selection

Further trains leave Oued Aïssi at 07:40, 10:45, 12:20 (not Fridays), 14:40 (not Fridays) and 18:30 (not Fridays). Trains marked "not Fridays" do not run on public holidays either.

As of November 2026, from SNTF's own timetable search. SNTF's site is sntf.dz (opens in a new tab); it could not be opened from outside Algeria while this page was written, and these times were read from its search engine through a third-party front end. Check them at the station before travelling.

Fares are set by SNTF and quoted in Algerian dinars, and they are the same in every seat. Algiers Agha to Tizi Ouzou costs 150, and to Oued Aïssi 170; from Thénia it is 75 to Tizi Ouzou and 95 to Oued Aïssi. The suburban train from Agha to Thénia is 80.

Buy a ticket at the station counter before boarding. Changing at Thénia, the two legs to Tizi Ouzou cost 80 and 75.

No rail pass covers Algeria. Interrail's One Country Passes stop at Türkiye and the European shore of the Mediterranean, no North African railway is in the network, and SNTF has no pass of its own for visitors, so every journey is an ordinary ticket.

Nothing is lost by that. Algiers to Tizi Ouzou is 150 dinars, and no pass could pay for itself on fares like these.

As of November 2026, from Interrail's own list of One Country Passes.

The railway stays in the valley; the Kabylie that people come for is in the hills, on the coast and up on the Djurdjura, and Tizi Ouzou is the place to set out from by road.

Tizi Ouzou is the base for the line and for the region around it, and its hotels are in the city centre and in the Nouvelle Ville by Kef Naâdja station. Up on the Djurdjura, Tala Guilef has a mountain hotel of its own.

Start at Agha, or change at Thénia. Only three trains a day run through from Algiers, and the first leaves Agha at 06:45. The rest of the day, take a suburban train to Thénia and change.

Mind Fridays. Several trains do not run on Fridays or public holidays, among them the 17:35 through train from Agha.

Watch the last trains back. The last train through to Agha leaves Oued Aïssi at 16:20. The last train down the branch to Thénia leaves at 18:30, or at 17:35 on Fridays. An evening in Tizi Ouzou means staying the night.

Take the cable car. Kef Naâdja station and the lower terminus of the cable car share one hub, so the ride up into the city is a short walk from the train.

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