Durrës – Peqin railway line

Durres-Peqin
Outgoing train in Rrogozhina station
Route length:	42.6 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend 00.00 Durrës Port of Durrës SH2 01.20 Shkozet depot 01.50 Shkozet depot Industrial track Railway Durrës – Tirana from / to Vora 04.00 Durres Plazh SH85 SH56 09.40 Golem Golem Lishat 19.70 Kavaja Helmas Darç Gërman Kryeluz Lekaj 27.40 Lekaj Gosa Gosa Gosa Gosa 375m 34.60 Rrogozhina Railway Rrogozhina – Fier to Fier Sinaballaj / Madh Thartor Rushta Industrial track Karina Karina 42.60 Peqin to Elbasan (see also HSH route network ) Kilometers according to HSH information

The Durrës – Peqin ( Albanian  Hekurudha Durrës-Peqin ) railway is a 42.6-kilometer-long Hekurudha Shqiptare railway that connects the port city of Durrës with the rural town of Peqin in central Albania . The line is single-track and not electrified. The line, built in 1947, is considered to be Albania's first standard gauge line .

history

construction

Old train station in Durrës from 1947 (2018)

Branch line to the port (left) at the exit of Durrës (2016)

Until the Second World War there was no standard gauge railway in Albania . The Selenica narrow-gauge railway only existed in southern Albania . During the First World War, however, the Austro-Hungarian army had already operated a light railway  on the Durrës - Kavaja - Rrogozhina - Peqin - Elbasan  route.

On April 27, 1940, the Italian occupiers  in Kavaja began building a railway line from Durrës to Elbasan. Construction began in the presence of Prime Minister Shefqet Vërlaci  and other government representatives such as Xhafer Ypi and Maliq Bushati . The goal of having the railway line completed by the end of 1941 could not be achieved. The failures in the Greco-Italian war and the further course of the war prevented a quick completion of construction. However, there must have been some construction progress, as the Wehrmacht brought a Mallet steam locomotive of the Bavarian BB II type to Albania in 1943 , which was used as a construction locomotive. In the case of a V36 , the first standard-gauge diesel locomotive in Albania, it is not entirely clear whether it came to Albania as a reparation during the war or not until 1948 .

In the years after the war, two railway lines were planned and built in Albania. On the one hand, the chrome and iron-nickel deposits near Elbasan should finally be developed; on the other hand, the new or planned industrial plants in the capital Tirana had  to be supplied. On November 7, 1947, the first stretch from the port of Durrës to the city of Peqin, around 32 kilometers from Elbasan, was put into operation. Connections to Tirana and Elbasan followed in 1949 and 1950.

The line to Peqin was built with Yugoslav help after a bilateral agreement was signed in July 1946. In return for loans and experts, Albania should deliver goods. The Yugoslavs were interested in transporting oil from central Albania ( Kuçova ) to the Adriatic by rail . Yugoslavia supplied the material that was needed to complete the work and operate the railway, including three steam locomotives (two SHS 20 and a tank locomotive from 1911 from Hohenzollern ) and 69 wagons from the Jugoslovenske Državne Železnice and 24 kilometers of track. In addition, the Soviet Union left four BBÖ 270 steam locomotives from Austria to the Albanians .

Construction began on May 1, 1947. The half-finished work from Italian times allowed it to be completed quickly. 30,000 volunteers with the simplest tools worked on the construction. Many of them were young people, which is why the route was also known as the “Railway of Youth”. As at the opening of the construction work, Prime Minister Enver Hoxha was  also present at the opening of the line in Durrës.

Later development

Peqin Railway Station (2013)

The route was soon extended to Elbasan or a little further. 1979 with Pogradec  the end of the expansion was reached. In addition, the branch line from Rrogozhina to the south to Fier was  opened in 1968 , and in 1985 it was extended to Vlora  .

The 1947 train station in Durrës was originally located in the city center and directly at the port. In the winter of 1981/82 it was replaced by a new building that was erected 700 meters further north.

In contrast to many others, trains of the Hekurudha Shqiptare still operate on the Durrës - Peqin - Elbasan railway today , but the infrastructure, like the entire Albanian railway, is in a desolate condition. There are hardly any signs from the train station in Durrës Plazh .

route

Train in Rrogozhina (2014)

Golem Train Station

The railway line runs through the flat area of ​​the central Albanian coastal plain and the flat Shkumbintal . It follows the old traffic routes - the Roman road Via Egnatia already ran on this route - at the foot of the hill.

The route leaves Durres to the east and soon happened to the depot Shkozet. It continues through the outskirts and suburbs of the city. After Shkozet, the line to Tirana branches off to the north, the line to Peqin turns south. It runs parallel to the coast on the edge of the seaside resort of Durrës Plazh. From the southern end of Durrës Plazh, it comes even closer to the sea. As a result, the railway line and the SH4 , which has been converted into a motorway, run side by side, at the Shkëmbi i Kavajës hill in a narrow strip between the hill and the sea. In Golem there is a small stop with a siding. At Mali i Robit, the traffic routes turn away from the sea and run through open terrain for the first time. In a straight line it goes through the coastal plain to Kavaja, which in contrast to the highway is bypassed to the east. The train station is at the southern end of the city center. At the foot of the hill we continue south, crossing some bridges. Shortly before Rrogozhina, a protruding range of hills is crossed in a tunnel not quite 400 meters long . As a result, it goes east up the Shkumbintal, always at the foot of the hills on the north side. Immediately after the Rrogozhina train station, the line branches off to the south. Another branch formed the connection of a gravel works on the Shkumbin . A little later a stream is crossed on a 100 meter long bridge. The route ends at Peqin train station, which is north of downtown.

literature

• Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of the Skipetaren . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, ISBN 3-922138-28-4 , route descriptions : Durrës - Pogradec, p. 101 f .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Abbreviations: Raporti Teknik për Rishikimin e Kryqëzimit Trekëndor Hekurudhor në Domje (October 22, 2018), map of the Albanian route network on p. 44; from the documents for the tender for the renewal of the Durrës – Tirana line.
2. ^ German Society for Railway History eV (Ed.): The Albanian Railways. A status report from autumn 1996 (=  railways and museums. Monographs of the DGEG . Volume 44). Self-published, Karlsruhe 1998, ISBN 3-921700-76-0 , p. 52 .
3. ↑ Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of Skipetars . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, ISBN 3-922138-28-4 , p. 96 .
4. ↑ Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of Skipetars . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, ISBN 3-922138-28-4 , p. 96 .
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of the Skipetaren . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, ISBN 3-922138-28-4 , p. 78 f .
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Alqi Gjika: Hekurudha Shqiptare. In: T669.net. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (Albanian). 
7. ^ Owen Pearson: Albania in occupation and war. From fascism to communism 1940-1945 (=  Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History . Volume 2). IB Tauris, London 2005, ISBN 1-84511-104-4 , April 1940, pp. 5 .
8. ↑ In contrast, Mölter writes that on April 27, 1940, the first section from Durrës to Kavaja was released (Romano Mölter: The forgotten railway: A journey into the history of the Albanian railways 1916-2020 . Railway-Media-Group, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-902894-87-8 , pp. 50 . ).
9. ^ ^{A b} Romano Mölter: The forgotten railway: A journey into the history of the Albanian railways 1916-2020 . Railway-Media-Group, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-902894-87-8 , p. 82 ff., 130 .
10. ^ Romano Mölter: The forgotten railway: A journey into the history of the Albanian railways 1916-2020 . Railway-Media-Group, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-902894-87-8 , p. 87 .
11. ↑ ^{a b} Elidor Mehilli: From Stalin to Mao - Albania and the Socialist World . Cornell University Press, Ithaca 2017, ISBN 978-1-5017-1415-3 , pp. 39 f .
12. ^ ^{A b} Romano Mölter: The forgotten railway: A journey into the history of the Albanian railways 1916-2020 . Railway-Media-Group, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-902894-87-8 , p. 50-58 .
13. ↑ ^{a b} Pandeli Çaçi: Fjalor enciklopedik shqiptar . Ed .: Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH . Tirana 1985, Hekurudha Durrës-Elbasan-Gur i kuq (Pogradec), p. 364 .
14. ^ Armand Vokshi: Tracce dell'architettura italiana in Albania 1925–1943 . DNA Editrice, Firenze 2014, ISBN 978-88-903947-4-4 , pp. 122-125 .
15. ↑ Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of Skipetars . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, ISBN 3-922138-28-4 , p. 85 f .
16. ↑ Elona Bedalli: SOS i Hekurudhës Shqiptare. In: Revista Monitor. April 17, 2016, accessed April 26, 2020 (Albanian).