Yerevan to Gyumri — the line to Armenia's second city

Gyumri is Armenia's second city, 154 kilometres north-west of Yerevan and 1,509 metres above the sea, and the train is the plain way to reach it. Three stopping trains a day in each direction take a little over three hours, calling at the small stations of the Ararat plain and the high ground below Aragats. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays a two-car express runs between the two cities without a stop in 2 hours 10 minutes.

The city at the end of the line is the reason to go. The Kumayri district, mostly from the 19th century and largely intact through the 1988 Spitak earthquake that devastated the rest of Gyumri, is one of the few places where old urban Armenian architecture survives at this scale. The photograph at the head of this page shows an ER2 at Gyumri station in 2009, in the green the class wore then.

Two kinds of train work this line, and the booking system names which one you get. The older is the ER2, the suburban electric unit built at Riga for the Soviet railways. The newer is the EP2D, a Russian-built electric unit in a two-carriage formation, bought by South Caucasus Railway for this route, where the express began in March 2018. In November 2026 the EP2D worked the express, trains 684 and 687 every day, and trains 685 and 686 from Monday to Friday. The ER2 worked trains 681 and 682 every day and took over 685 and 686 at weekends.

The train leaves Yerevan's main station and runs out across the Ararat plain, calling at Noragavit after nine minutes and Masis after nineteen. Mount Ararat stands to the south, in Turkey, and Masis takes its name from the mountain's Armenian one. Ejmiatsin, the seat of the Armenian Church, comes up at 34 minutes. Armavir is the longest stop on the stopping trains, up to four minutes at a station of red and black stone.

Past Araks and Dalarik the line turns north and starts to rise. Karakert, Arteni and Aragats are small stations on the open land below the western side of Mount Aragats, at 4,090 metres the highest point in Armenia. The next call is named Ani, for the medieval capital of the Bagratid kings, but the ruins are out of reach by rail. They stand across the Akhurian River in Turkey, beside a border that is closed.

The last stretch crosses the Shirak plain through Agin and Bayandur. Gyumri was called Alexandropol when the railway reached it from Tiflis in 1899, and its junction, formed two years earlier, is the oldest and largest in Armenia. Trains finish at a brick station with a clock tower.

Three stopping trains run each way every day, and the express runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Times are as of November 2026, from South Caucasus Railway (opens in a new tab)'s published timetable and its booking system. Intermediate times are arrivals; stops last one minute, and up to four at Armavir. The express left Gyumri at 19:40 through the summer of 2026 and has left at 17:55 since 25 September.

Yerevan to Gyumri

Gyumri to Yerevan

A day in Gyumri works on any day of the week by train 684 and the 18:15 back, which allows about seven hours in the city. At a weekend the express out and back leaves six and a half.

Tickets are sold at station counters and through the operator's local train site (opens in a new tab), which requires an account. The express sells numbered seats in its two carriages, 132 in all. The stopping trains do not, so a ticket on those is good for any free seat. Under-sevens travel free with an adult if they do not take a separate seat, and 10 kilograms of hand luggage is included.

The stopping fare depends on which train is running that day, because the EP2D costs a little more than the ER2. Prices are the operator's for one adult, one way, read from its booking system in November 2026.

No rail pass covers this train. Armenia has no Interrail or Eurail One Country Pass, and it is not among the countries the Global Pass covers. At 2,500 dram for the express, a pass would have very little to save in any case. Tickets come straight from South Caucasus Railway, at the station or through its local train site.

Gyumri takes a day on foot. The sights of the Ararat plain lie near the stations at Ejmiatsin and Armavir, and with three stopping trains a day it pays to check the next one before leaving the platform.

The morning trains make Gyumri a day trip, so a night there is a choice rather than a need. It is worth making for an evening in the old town, and train 681 leaves at 07:45 for the return.

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