Cheapest€94.94
- Shosholoza Meyl SM461806:306h 42m13:12Cape Town railway stationAtherstone Railway Station
Door to door 7h 26mCO2 28.6 kgChanges 0Refundable
Cape Town to Makhanda train
Trains from Cape Town to Makhanda start at €111.99 and take 7h 26m at their fastest.
Check dates and fares
Fares and seats move by the day. Price Cape Town to Makhanda on the date you actually want, rather than on the date this page was built.
The Trains from Cape Town to Makhanda starts at €111.99 and takes 7h 26m door to door, run by 1 operator over 867 km, with around 5 departures a day. Fares bottom out about 45 days before departure.
- 7h 26mDoor to door
- 6h 42mMoving
- €111.99 to €220.89From
- 06:30 to 07:30First and last departure
- 5Per day
- 28.6 kgCO2
First and last are taken from the services we sell on 28 September 2026. The return direction keeps its own timetable and is not these times reversed.
€111.99 to €220.89 for one passenger across the 14 departure dates priced here. The low end is one day, not every day. Worked out from this corridor rather than held for anybody. The operator sets the price on the day.
Fares by date
What this journey usually costs, by departure date. It shows which days run dearer.
Typical fares
- about €220.89Mon14
- about €181.29Tue15
- about €184.59Wed16
- about €209.34Thu17
- about €171.38Fri18
- about €184.59Sat19
- about €178.54Sun20
- about €126.29Mon21
- about €111.99Tue22
- about €152.14Wed23
- about €163.69Thu24
- about €137.84Fri25
- about €160.39Sat26
- about €157.09Sun27
Based on what this route has cost recently. The operator sets the price on the day, and the live fare is confirmed when you book.
The cheapest and the fastest on 28 September 2026
Lowest CO2€102.64
- Shosholoza Meyl SM584007:302h 44m10:14Cape Town railway stationGeorge railway station
- Shosholoza Meyl SM828011:483h 21m15:09George railway stationAtherstone Railway Station
Changes at George, with 94 minutes between services and a walk of about 5 minutes.
Door to door 8h 23mCO2 26.9 kgChanges 1Refundable
Train operators
| Operator | From | Fastest | Typical speed | Flexibility | On board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shosholoza Meyl | €94.94 | 6h 35m | 140 km/h | Refundable | Power sockets, Wi-Fi |
The train gets you into Makhanda. It does not get you a bed, and neither do we.
A room in Makhanda for the night the train gets in
Sort by distance from Atherstone Railway Station and you can see which places are ten minutes on foot and which are not.
Search Makhanda on Booking.com
Partner links. We do not sell accommodation. We earn a commission when a booking completes, and it never changes what you pay.
When to book Cape Town to Makhanda
The same search run across the whole booking window, so the shape of the curve is visible rather than described.
- €113.6390 days
- €110.8960 days
- €76.2445 days
- €79.5330 days
- €110.3321 days
- €157.0914 days
- €178.547 days
- €184.593 days
- €220.891 days
- Cheapest lead time
- Fares bottom out around 45 days ahead, at €76.24.
- How much it moves
- The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time is 190 percent. The dearest point is €220.89, 1 days out.
- What that means
- Today sits inside the cheap window, which closes about 45 days before departure. Waiting from here has usually cost money on this corridor rather than saved it.
Which departure day costs least
Median cheapest fare for each weekday, taken across the next three weeks of real prices.
- €157.09Sun
- €126.29Mon
- €111.99Tue
- €152.14Wed
- €163.69Thu
- €137.84Fri
- €160.39Sat
Where you leave from and where you arrive
Cape Town
Rail
- Cape Town railway station
- Langa
- Parow
Grahamstown
Rail
- Atherstone Railway Station
What the journey actually looks like
- Direct or connecting
- 20% of the services we sell on this corridor run through without a change. The remaining 80% involve one connection.
- How far it really runs
- The route covers 867 km against 754 km in a straight line, a detour of 15 percent. Track and road geometry account for the difference.
- Where the change is
- Connections are made at Paarl, Stellenbosch, Oudtshoorn, George. The gap between arriving and leaving is 51 minutes, of which about 5 is walking.
- If the connection is missed
- The tightest connection we sell here has a 18 percent chance of not being made on the timetable alone. Part of this journey is a self transfer between separate tickets, so leave more time than the minimum and expect to check in again.
- First and last departure
- The first service of the day leaves Cape Town at 06:30 and the last at 07:30, across 5 departures The return direction keeps its own timetable, so the times back are not these times reversed.
Questions about Cape Town to Makhanda
The questions people actually ask about this journey, answered from the same prices and times the page above is built on rather than written once and left to go stale.
How long does the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda take?
The Train from Cape Town to Makhanda takes 7h 26m door to door, of which 6h 42m is spent moving. The route runs 867 km. The difference between the two times is reaching the terminal and leaving it at the far end, which every time on this page includes.
How much does the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda cost?
The Train from Cape Town to Makhanda starts at €111.99 for one passenger, as of 13 September 2026. A typical fare is €102.64. Both are the total including taxes, supplier fees and our service fee, so the price here is the price at checkout.
Who runs the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda?
1 operators run the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda: Shosholoza Meyl. Between them they file around 5 departures a day. The operator table on this page compares them on fare, journey time, cruising speed, fare conditions and what is provided on board.
Which terminal does the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda use?
The Train from Cape Town to Makhanda leaves from Cape Town railway station and arrives at Atherstone Railway Station. Allow about 44m for reaching the departure terminal and leaving the arrival one. That time is already inside every door to door figure quoted on this page.
When should I book the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda?
Fares for the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda bottom out around 45 days ahead, at €76.24. The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time across the window is 190 percent, measured on 13 September 2026. Booking inside the final week has consistently cost more.
How much CO2 does the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda produce?
The Train from Cape Town to Makhanda produces about 28.6 kg of CO2 per passenger over 867 km, which works out at roughly 33 grams per passenger kilometre. That figure is for the whole journey and for one traveller, not for the vehicle.
What is provided on board the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda?
Operators on the Train from Cape Town to Makhanda publish Power sockets, Wi-Fi. That is what 1 carriers on this corridor state about their own fleets, across a journey of 7h 26m door to door. Where a carrier publishes nothing, this page lists nothing for it.
Where these numbers come from
Places, coordinates, operators, which operator serves which pair, and every distance on this page are real and come from open data. Where a corridor has a filed timetable the departure times are real too, and ferry fares are the prices the operators publish themselves.
Derived from service area No carrier record names this exact pair. The operators listed publish a service area covering both places at a distance their mode plausibly carries people, which is evidence that the corridor is served and not evidence of a specific service. Pages state which, because presenting the two as the same thing would be dishonest.
Where no operator publishes a fare for a corridor, the price here is our own estimate, worked out from the real distance and the real operator through a fare curve that follows lead time, day of the week and season. It tells you roughly what the journey costs. It is not a seat anyone has agreed to sell, and the payment step will not take it.
Defined in full at Door to door, Fares, The booking window, Carbon
- On this page
- Every figure above was computed for Cape Town to Makhanda on 13 September 2026: 867 km of route against 754 km in a straight line, 5 services a day, 1 operator a cheapest fare of €111.99, and 7h 26m door to door on the fastest mode. The return direction is computed separately and its numbers are not these numbers.
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The train is the simple part. What you do once you are in Makhanda is somebody else's catalogue.
Day trips out of Makhanda and across South Africa
Day trips that leave Makhanda in the morning and cover a good part of South Africa by evening.
See Makhanda on GetYourGuideOr browse Viator
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