Rail transport in Slovakia began on September 21, 1840, with the opening of the first horse-powered line from Bratislava to Svätý Jur (at that time in the Kingdom of Hungary).

The modern Železnice Slovenskej republiky company was established in 1993 as a successor of the Československé státní dráhy in Slovakia.

Therefore, a company was founded to build a horse railway that would link the five royal cities between Bratislava and Trnava.

Bankruptcy of the Vienna stock exchange was the beginning of an economic crisis affecting the economy of the monarchy throughout the first half of the 70th of the 19th century.

After the formation of Czechoslovakia, the most important task was to maintain and run the rail network defined by the new boundaries.

Passenger transport was characterized by extensive seasonal movements of agricultural and industrial workers from Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia travelling to Germany.

After World War II, with the reestablishment of Czechoslovakia, the main issue that needed to be resolved was the reconstruction of the rail network.

The insufficient capacity of the Čierna nad Tisou – Košice – Žilina – Bohumín line was the main factor that sped up the expansion of the rail network in southern Slovakia.

Industrialization had a significant impact on the growth of passenger transport — people traveled to work and school over large distances.

The bad initial situation required steps to be taken to consolidate the operation of the railway network as quick as possible.

The most important measure was to create conditions for the privatization and optimization of rail activity to meet business requirements.

The strategic objective was to provide access to the European Union trade market and to capitalize on the geographic location of the territory of the Slovak Republic and its tourist potential.

[9] In 2017 a trial container service from Dalian in China to the SPaP port on the River Danube in Bratislava arrived in the Slovak capital on November 13, after a 17-day journey via Russia and Ukraine.