The Eastern Express services Kars once a day to Istanbul.

Between 1993 and 2011, there was no train service east of Kars due to the Turkish-Armenian border closure.

The station was opened in 1899, by the Transcaucasus Railway, when Kars was under the rule of the Russian Empire in order to have better control over the Ottoman front.

The Turkish State Railways took over the station, but Kars remained isolated from the rest of the network until 1939, when a standard gauge line was built to Erzurum.

Passengers would change to a narrow gauge train from Erzurum to Kars.