Trains in Serbia will still be able to reach speeds of 200 km/h on one of the country’s important highways, with modernization work between Belgrade and Niš estimated to cost nearly €3 billion starting in 2025.

Between Serbia’s two largest cities, Belgrade and Niš, extensive modernization work will be carried out to allow trains to reach speeds of 200 km/h on some sections. The length of the current line between the two cities is 230 km, and trains run for six hours. When there are long stretches of speed, the fastest IC trains will be able to travel for 100 minutes.

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The estimated cost of the EIB in 2022 was almost 2.8 billion euros, and in 2023 the EIB and the EBRD agreed to provide a financial package of 2.2 billion euros for this railway.

The work will be carried out in three sections, and the project manager will be selected at the tender. This will be followed by several rounds of tenders and it is hoped that work will start in 2025 and be ready by the end of 2028. Deadlines are not always met and budgets tend to exceed major railway works, but Serbia has shown that it can complete large projects (and with the help of Chinese and Russian companies).

Serbia surprised many when in the spring of 2022 it inaugurated a section where trains travel at a speed of 200 km/h. It is about 41 km of the section between the cities of Belgrade and Novi Sad. The fastest trains are the new Swiss Stadler Kiss models.

Serbia has an extensive plan to modernize its railway network, and work is currently underway on a new 350 km railway line between Belgrade and Budapest, 184 km of which pass through Serbian territory. It is not known when the new line will be ready, but Serbia has ordered five Chinese CRRC trains that reach a speed of 200 km/h.

The Serbs are also modernizing 100 km between Niš and Dimitrovgrad on the border with Bulgaria.

Sources: Railway Gazette International, Tanjug.