Fastest€54.79
- Shosholoza Meyl SM792019:313h 4m22:35Johannesburg Park StationPietermaritzburg railway station
Door to door 3h 48mCO2 14.7 kgChanges 0Refundable
Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg train
Trains from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg start at €47.64 and take 3h 48m at their fastest.
Check dates and fares
Fares and seats move by the day. Price Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg on the date you actually want, rather than on the date this page was built.
The Trains from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg starts at €47.64 and takes 3h 48m door to door, run by 1 operator over 444 km, with around 9 departures a day. Fares bottom out about 30 days before departure.
- 3h 48mDoor to door
- 3h 4mMoving
- €58.09 to €110.34From
- 06:50 to 19:31First and last departure
- 9Per day
- 14.7 kgCO2
First and last are taken from the services we sell on 5 October 2026. The return direction keeps its own timetable and is not these times reversed.
€58.09 to €110.34 for one passenger across the 14 departure dates priced here. The low end is one day, not every day. Typical for this corridor. The operator sets the price on the day.
Shosholoza Meyl runs this service and does not sell it here. Bookaway takes the payment.
Buying this journey
Bookaway lists departures for Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg on your date, and you pay on their side.
See Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg on Bookaway
Partner link. We earn nothing from this one.
Fares by date
What this journey usually costs, by departure date. It shows which days run dearer.
Typical fares
- about €110.34Mon21
- about €92.19Tue22
- about €100.99Wed23
- about €99.34Thu24
- about €93.29Fri25
- about €90.54Sat26
- about €86.69Sun27
- about €58.09Mon28
- about €58.09Tue29
- about €61.94Wed30
- about €72.39Thu1
- about €65.24Fri2
- about €70.19Sat3
- about €65.24Sun4
Based on what this route has cost recently. The live fare is confirmed when you book.
The cheapest and the fastest on 5 October 2026
Train operators
| Operator | From | Fastest | Typical speed | Flexibility | On board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shosholoza Meyl | €43.79 | 3h 46m | 140 km/h | Refundable | Power sockets, Wi-Fi |
The train gets you into Pietermaritzburg. These two partners take it from there, and the bed is theirs to book.
A room in Pietermaritzburg for the night the train gets in
Sort by distance from Pietermaritzburg railway station and you can see which places are ten minutes on foot and which are not.
Search Pietermaritzburg on Booking.com
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When to book Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg
The same search run across the whole booking window, so the shape of the curve is visible rather than described.
- €50.8890 days
- €43.8060 days
- €37.3145 days
- €36.7230 days
- €50.2921 days
- €53.8314 days
- €70.947 days
- €76.843 days
- €85.691 days
- Cheapest lead time
- Fares bottom out around 30 days ahead, at €36.72.
- How much it moves
- The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time is 133 percent. The dearest point is €85.69, 1 days out.
- What that means
- Today sits inside the cheap window, which closes about 30 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.
- €53.83Sun
- €51.47Mon
- €52.65Tue
- €56.19Wed
- €63.27Thu
- €62.09Fri
- €59.14Sat
Where you leave from and where you arrive
Johannesburg
Rail
- Johannesburg Park Station
- Dube
- Angus
Pietermaritzburg
Rail
- Pietermaritzburg railway station
- Hilton train station
What the journey looks like
- Direct or connecting
- 82% of the services we sell on this corridor run through without a change. The remaining 18% involve one connection.
- How far it really runs
- The route covers 444 km against 444 km in a straight line, a detour of 2 percent. Track and road geometry account for the difference.
- Where the change is
- Connections are made at Ladysmith, Nigel, Newcastle. The gap between arriving and leaving is 63 minutes, of which about 5 is walking.
- If the connection is missed
- The tightest connection we sell here has a 15 percent chance of not being made on the timetable alone. Both legs are sold on one booking, so a missed connection is ours to fix and you are rebooked at no charge.
- First and last departure
- The first service of the day leaves Johannesburg at 06:50 and the last at 19:31, across 9 departures The return direction keeps its own timetable, so the times back are not these times reversed.
Trains against the other ways to make this journey
| Mode | Door to door | Moving | At the ends | From | CO2 | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Train | 3h 48m | 3h 4m | 44m | €47.64 | 14.7 kg | 9 |
| Flight | 4h 10m | 1h | 3h 10m | €41.44 | 95.7 kg | 8 |
Questions about Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg
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 Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg take?
The Train from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg takes 3h 48m door to door, of which 3h 4m is spent moving. The route runs 444 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 Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg cost?
The Train from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg starts at €47.64 for one passenger, as of 20 September 2026. A typical fare is €59.74. 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 Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg?
1 operators run the Train from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg: Shosholoza Meyl. Between them they file around 9 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 Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg use?
The Train from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg leaves from Johannesburg Park Station and arrives at Pietermaritzburg 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.
Is the Train the best way from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg?
Travelling from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg by Flight costs €41.44 and takes 4h 10m door to door, against 3h 48m by Train. Which is better depends on whether the money or the hours matter more on this trip. The comparison table on this page shows every mode side by side.
When should I book the Train from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg?
Fares for the Train from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg bottom out around 30 days ahead, at €36.72. The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time across the window is 133 percent, measured on 20 September 2026. Booking inside the final week has consistently cost more.
How much CO2 does the Train from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg produce?
The Train from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg produces about 14.7 kg of CO2 per passenger over 444 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 Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg?
Operators on the Train from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg publish Power sockets, Wi-Fi. That is what 1 carriers on this corridor state about their own fleets, across a journey of 3h 48m 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.
Observed service A carrier record names this operator on this pair, carried through unchanged.
Prices come from the supplier wherever we hold a live quote. Elsewhere we show an indicative price built from the real distance, the real operator and a fare curve over lead time, day of the week and season. Those are labelled Estimated fare and cannot be booked.
Defined in full at Door to door, Fares, The booking window, Carbon
- On this page
- Every figure above was computed for Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg on 20 September 2026: 444 km of route against 444 km in a straight line, 9 services a day, 1 operator a cheapest fare of €47.64, and 3h 48m 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 Pietermaritzburg is somebody else's catalogue.
Day trips out of Pietermaritzburg and across South Africa
Day trips that leave Pietermaritzburg in the morning and cover a good part of South Africa by evening.
See Pietermaritzburg on GetYourGuideOr browse Viator
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