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Serbia plans €3.5bn investment in rail renewal

Serbia has announced that it will invest €3.5bn in its rail network as part of a €14bn five-year investment programme, RailFreight.com reports.

Among the schemes to be funded is the line between Belgrade and the port of Bar in Montenegro. 

A 208km section of the line, between Valjevo and Vrbnica, will be modernised, and a rail control centre installed. This will be funded by a €172m loan from Russian Railways and €57m from the Serbian government.

Another €1.4bn is earmarked for a metro in Belgrade. The first line of this network is due to be completed in 2025.

On the 108km line between Novi Sad, a city on the Danube, and the town of Kelebia, on Serbia’s northern border with Hungary, China Railway International Group and China Communications Construction are to add a second track. This project will be paid for with a €943m loan from Export-Import Bank of China.

A third project will upgrade a section of the Budapest-Belgrade line, which is part of the EU’s Trans-European Network between Austria and Bulgaria. The stretch between Belgrade and Nis will be renewed, along with the branches from Nis to Dimitrovgrad and Presevo.

The scheme includes the modernisation of the Novi Sad, Vrbas and Subotica junctions and the construction of a 1.6km viaduct in Vrbas.

Image: Belgrade’s Prokop railway station (Almarqmod/CC BY-SA 4.0)

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