Minister says Serbian railways in bad shape

NEWS 30.01.202312:17
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Serbian Construction, Traffic and Infrastructure Minister Goran Vesic said on Monday that the national railway network is in “very bad shape”.

“That means that there are parts of the rail network where trains can travel at speeds of just 10 or 20 kilometers and hour,” he told pro-regime TV Pink commenting the fact that five trains carrying hazardous cargo derailed this month.

“There are more than 1,083 kilometers of railway which are more than 50 years old. The average ago of the railway is 25 years. We have 794 km older than 40 years, almost 600 km are more than 30 years which means there are more than 2,500 km more than 30 years old,” he said and added that the country has about 3,400 kilometers of railways with just 159 kilometers allowing speeds in excess of 100 km/h.

Vesic said that the rail network is safe even though no investments have been made for years. He said that he asked the European Commission for funds to reconstruct five regional rail lines, some 600 km, linking the country to European Union member states. He added that a contract will be signed with the EU to build the Belgrade-Nis fast railway and continue construction of the Nis-Presevo line.