The Deputy Mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesic, announced today that the construction of the subway in Belgrade will begin in November, with works on the future depot on Makisko polje.
At the opening of the “Railway Summer School”, organized by the “Konard Adenauer” Foundation and the Transport Community, Vesic said that “accelerated work is being done on the expropriation of land” for the construction site.
“After that, the digging of the tunnel begins, where the largest part of the first line, from Zeleznik to Karaburma, will be underground, and we believe that we will finish it by 2028. The first line is about 21 kilometers long and will have 21 stations, while the second line will be finished in 2030, it starts in Zemun and ends in Mirijevo,” stated Vesic.
He also said that the first two subway lines will cost 4.4 billion euros. According to him, the main problem with public transport in Belgrade is that the “basic subsystem” is the bus and the timetable cannot be met because it depends on traffic jams.
“There is no city the size of Belgrade in Europe in which the basic subsystem is bus, and that is why it is necessary to reorient the city as soon as possible to the rail subsystem, which is independent and allows citizens to be transported quickly. That is why Belgrade needs a tram and a BG train, as well as the expansion of the tram network,” said the deputy mayor.
Vesic added that they are also working on improving the city railway system, which costs 1.2 billion euros, as well as on extending the tram lines by 50 kilometers.
“The city railway should enable all suburban municipalities to be connected to the city by a fast and efficient railway connection,” he said.
The director of the Transport Community, Matej Zakonjsek, said that the goal is to bring young professionals to share their knowledge, connect and use this program, and “it strengthens the region and thus Europe.”
He added that the railway in the region has been neglected in recent years, and the quality has declined, and “the lack of connectivity in the region requires our urgent attention.”
“We now have a Transport Community that brings together young professionals and administrations and colleagues from Europe who will help change this past into a much brighter future,” he said, adding that there is an action plan for the railway to modernize it in the coming years.
The President of the “Konard Adenauer” Foundation for Serbia and Montenegro, Norbert Beckman, stated that in the coming days, the meeting will discuss how to organize the railway system at the local level, in the region and in Europe. According to him, in the light of the “European Green Agreement”, railway transport is important.
“Participating in ideas on how to popularize sustainable railway traffic is very important for our foundation, as for the European one,” Beckman emphasized, adding that this is not only an interesting topic, but that it is the future, Nova reports.
