Opposition says Serbian authorities tearing up rail tracks

Nevena Subotic, a senior official of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, said that 400 of the 435 kilometers of rail track planned for sale were in Serbia’s northern province of Vojvodina.

Subotic said in a press release the authorities are claiming that the rail network in Vojvodina is not profitable and are not planning to renew it. She said that view might be acceptable if the authorities had not inaugurated the new fast train between Belgrade and Novi Sad and on to Budapest and that Belgrade was not planning to build a metro. “The needs of Belgrade outweighed the needs of the rest of the country, especially in regard to Vojvodina,” Subotic said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban recently rode the first train from Belgrade to Novi Sad following the reconstruction of that railroad.