The Zsuzsi Forest Railway

When the city of Debrecen laid a railway out to its forests in 1882, it chose a track gauge of 950 mm, and no other railway in Hungary ever used it. For almost eighty years that made every engine and every wagon a one-off: parts could not be borrowed, and anything bought second-hand had to be rebuilt to fit. In 1961 the state railway gave up and relaid the whole line to the national narrow gauge of 760 mm. The old stock went for scrap, and with it went the little wood-burning engine of 1882 called Zsuzsi, whose name the railway still carries.

The line was built to bring timber in from the city's woods near Gúth, 24 to 38 kilometres out, to a timber yard on what was then the edge of town. Passengers came later, from 1923, and by 1950 the track ran 48 kilometres to Nyírbéltek, carrying market traders, workers and schoolchildren from farmsteads and villages along the way. It was closed on 31 August 1977, against loud local protest. Only the first 16.6 kilometres survived, handed to the city as a pioneer railway for children, and when the council voted to close even that in 1995, a circle of friends took it over and has run it since July 1996.

Today it is a summer outing from the city: diesels that came with the regauging, coaches of 1961, and an hour through the sandy woods of the Erdőspuszta to a lake and a lookout tower.

Trains leave from Debrecen-Fatelep, the old municipal timber yard, on Ruyter utca in the east of the city. The first stretch is the oldest, laid in 1882: a long, almost straight run out through the suburbs past the Hétvezér utca stop, with a cycle path alongside, to Fancsika and the former station at Csereerdő beside main road 48.

Into the woods

At Csereerdő the line turns north in a wide curve into the forest and makes the steepest climb on the route, about six in a thousand. Erdészlak, the forester's lodge, is the one place where two trains can pass. Beyond it the train crosses the Panoráma road and winds between acacia, oak and pine, past fields and scattered farmsteads. At Sámsoni út the remains of an old timber-loading siding still lie by the track, and from there the banks and cuttings grow deeper: they were dug in 1939, when the line between Haláperdő and Hármashegyalja was straightened and shortened.

Hármashegyalja

The terminus, about 55 minutes from Debrecen, is named for three sand hills, the highest 151 metres above sea level. It is a recreation ground in the woods, with a nature centre, a forest school, a nature trail, a five-hectare lake dug in 1980 and a 25-metre timber lookout tower of 101 steps, from which Nagyvárad, now Oradea in Romania, can be seen on a clear day. Past the station a short spur runs into the trees and stops at a buffer: this is where the line to Nyírbéltek once carried on.

The locomotives and coaches

Scheduled trains are worked by one of three Mk48 diesel-hydraulic locomotives, 2002, 2006 and 2009, which came from the narrow-gauge lines at Nyíregyháza in 1977–78. Mk48 2002 is the prototype of a class of forty, delivered in 1960. Behind them run green Bax coaches of 1961, second class only, and an open summer coach. On special days the steam engine 394,023 takes the train instead: built in Budapest in 1923 and owned by the Transport Museum, it came to Debrecen in 2006 and carries the name Zsuzsi.

The Zsuzsi runs from 1 May to 30 September, on Wednesdays, weekends and public holidays only. Every train runs the whole line, Debrecen-Fatelep to Hármashegyalja, in about 55 minutes. There are no scheduled trains from October to April. There is nothing to book: buy your ticket at the Ruyter utca station or on the train.

1 May to 31 August 2026

1 to 30 September 2026

As of October 2026, from the railway's own 2026 timetable on zsuzsivasut.hu (opens in a new tab).

Special trains

The steam train runs only to order or on announced days, and the railway puts on themed trains outside the season: in autumn 2026, Bátrak erdeje on 24 October and the goose feast Libasokadalom on 7 November, both listed on the railway's events page (opens in a new tab). Groups can charter a train all year round.

Getting to the start

MÁV InterCity trains leave Budapest-Nyugati for Debrecen every hour at 55 minutes past and take three hours; slower InterRégió trains leave at 19 past. From Debrecen station, city buses 25, 41 and 45, among others, run to the Ruyter utca terminus.

One fare covers the whole line. At the Ruyter utca station you can pay by card, SZÉP card or cash; on the train it is cash only, in forints, and the railway asks for the right money. Reduced and free tickets follow the railway's conditions of carriage, and there is a family return. A bicycle needs its own ticket; a pram, a sledge or a pair of skis travels free.

The steam train has its own, higher fares, and groups of more than 25 pay a group rate if they book ten days ahead. From the railway's fare page, as of October 2026.

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

A pass still gets you to Debrecen. MÁV's trains from Budapest are covered by an Interrail Hungary Pass or a Global Pass; InterRégió trains need no reservation, and InterCity trains need one.

For this trip alone a pass is not worth buying: the fare is a few thousand forints. It pays only if Debrecen 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 Zsuzsi's fares (opens in a new tab).

The railway starts in Debrecen, Hungary's second city, and the best of it is in the city centre. The Hortobágy, the great grassland west of the city, is a day trip of its own.

The line is a day out from Debrecen, so stay in the city, ideally by its Great Forest park.

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