Yerevan to Shorzha — the summer train to Lake Sevan

Lake Sevan lies at about 1,900 metres and covers 1,242 square kilometres, the largest body of water in Armenia and in the wider Caucasus, and on three days of the week in summer a train runs to it. An ER2 electric unit leaves Yerevan at 08:30, climbs through Charentsavan and Hrazdan, reaches the lake at Sevan a little over two hours later, then spends the best part of an hour following the shore to Shorzha. It turns round at 17:00, which leaves five hours on the water and puts everyone back in the capital for 20:35.

This is a working summer train rather than a tourist one. South Caucasus Railway runs it on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for about three months a year, charges 1,100 dram for the whole line and does not reserve seats. The units were built at Riga between 1962 and 1984. Beyond Shorzha the line continues towards the gold mine at Sotk, and the freight train at the head of this page was photographed heading that way along the shore in 2010.

Train 6531 is an ER2, the suburban electric unit built at Riga for the Soviet railways' 3 kV lines, and the operator's booking system gives this one 368 seats. A 2026 passenger report describes four carriages, two with the old wooden benches and two with softer seats. No seat is reserved, so the window goes to whoever boards first, and on July and August weekends latecomers can stand for part of the way.

It leaves Yerevan's main station at 08:30 and makes no call until Nurnus, 73 minutes out. After that the calls come close together, one minute each, through Charentsavan, the Solak and Kakhsi halts and Hrazdan at 10:16. The left-hand windows have the better of this stretch, with the city and the mountains behind it.

At Varser the view changes sides. The lake opens on the right, and it stays there for the rest of the ride. Sevan, at 10:43, is a town at 1,925 metres that Russian Molokan settlers founded in 1842 as Yelenovka. Six minutes later comes the halt the timetable calls Island, the longest stop on the line at four minutes, where the monastery on the peninsula comes into view. It was a true island until the water was drawn down in the Soviet decades, when the lake fell by about 20 metres and lost more than 40 per cent of its volume. Tunnels bringing water in from the Arpa and Vorotan rivers have since let it rise again.

The last 54 minutes are the reason to ride all the way. Past Tsovagyugh, Shoger, Arevik, Tsitsernak and Drakhtik the train follows the eastern shore, which is less developed than the beaches round Sevan town. It arrives at Shorzha at 11:43, at a stone station with a colonnade of tall arches, and the bathing is a short ride away by local taxi.

The return, train 6532, leaves at 17:00 and takes 3 hours 35 minutes, 22 minutes longer than the climb.

One train runs each way on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in summer. The operator publishes the season as June to September; in 2026 it ran from 12 June to 13 September, fourteen weekends, every one of them confirmed in the operator's own booking system. The dates for 2027 have not been published, and nothing was on sale for June 2027 when this page was checked in November 2026. Times are from South Caucasus Railway (opens in a new tab)'s published timetable and are the arrival at each station; stops last one minute, except Island at four.

Yerevan to Shorzha — train 6531

Shorzha to Yerevan — train 6532

Out of season the line has no passenger train. The Yerevan–Gyumri and Yerevan–Araks electric trains run all year on the operator's other routes.

Tickets are sold at station counters and through the operator's local train site (opens in a new tab), which requires an account. Seats are not reserved, so a ticket is good for any free seat on the train. Under-sevens travel free with an adult if they do not take a separate seat, and 10 kilograms of hand luggage is included.

Fares go by distance band and are the same in both directions, so Sevan costs the same as Shorzha from Yerevan and the last hour along the shore comes at no extra charge. Those below are the operator's 2026 prices 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 — checked against interrail.com in November 2026. At 1,100 dram for the whole line, 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.

The timetable allows a little over five hours at the lake, which is enough for one monastery or one long swim. The stops are a few minutes apart along the shore and a ticket is sold to each of them, so the ride can be broken at Sevan or Island on the way back, with the same 17:50 and 17:58 trains to catch.

The train is timed for a day out and back, so the night that matters is the one before an 08:30 departure from Yerevan. A night on the lake works on Fridays and Saturdays, when there is another train the next day. Sunday's 17:00 is the last until the following Friday.

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