The grand opening was on February 20th, 1897. The Bulgarian Prince Ferdinand I, Princess Maria Luisa, the visiting Serbian King Alexander I Obrenovich, ministers and deputies, military and clergy travelled by . the first train from Sofia to Roman. This was the fifth railway line in Bulgaria after Ruse-Varna (1866), Yambol-Burgas (1890), Shumen-Kaspichan (1895) and Sofia-Pernik-Radomir (1893-1897). The construction of the 108 km long line cost the state 28 million leva in then-current money. After the 1950s, the number of trains from Sofia to Northern Bulgaria increased significantly and the Gorge turned out to be a key section for improving traffic. At the end of 1958, the doubling of the route began. Work started in the area of Lakatnik and Opletnya. The construction is carried out in stages without stopping the movement of trains. The most complex 2-kilometer section Cherepish-Lyutibrod (1967-1969) was completed last. The line is an engineering challenge with its 22 tunnels (14 of them with 2 tubes each). The first tunnel was built in 1896 in the Zverino region. Dozens of steel and reinforced concrete bridges were also built, over which the line passes. Aleko Konstantinov and Ivan Vazov (famous Bulgarian writers) were among the first passengers on the line through the Gorge and at the end of the 19th century described the wild beauty of these places in their travelogues. At that time, the locomotives were steam-powered. After the middle of the century, the locomotives were already replaced with diesel ones. In the late 1960s, BDZ purchased double-decker train sets, which were also run through the Gorge, providing a unique perspective for travelers on the upper platform. In 1979, the line through the Iskar Gorge was fully electrified. To this day, the train journey through the Gorge is an attraction for passengers. From the train, they can enjoy the river, the cliffs of Tserovo, Bov, Lakatnik, Opletnya, Cherepish and Lyutibrod and the views of Ponor Mountain, Razhana and the Vrachanski Balkan.
In 1889, a law was passed to connect Northern and Southern Bulgaria with a railway. In the period 1894-1897, the Sofia-Mezdra-Roman railway line was built. There were three variants for the route: the first - to pass through Orhanie (Botevgrad) and the Arabakonash Pass, the second - through the Petrokhan Pass and the third, the most difficult, through the Iskar Gorge. In the end, the proposal was accepted by the French engineer Leon Guillou and the Bulgarian entrepreneur Ivan Hadzhienov (mayor of Sofia 1881-83, and then a deputy), who had already worked on the construction of the international railway through the Carpathians in Romania. The project cost was 21 million leva. A delegation of Lakatnik residents went to Sofia to ask that the railroad not pass through the village, so as not to scare the livestock, but construction began anyway. The route was given to individual builders piecemeal – in sections. The line, bridges and tunnels were built by Italians, Albanians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Bulgarians. Stones and other building materials were transported by oxen. People from the surrounding villages were the main workforce.
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