Florina – Pogradec railway line
 
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End points of the route (red) |
The Florina – Pogradec railway is a new railway project between the city of Florina in Greece and the city of Pogradec in Albania .
Traffic geography
The new construction of this approximately 100 kilometers long line meant closing the gap between the Greek and Albanian railway networks . Until Florina leads coming from the east railway line Thessaloniki-Florina , Pogradec is the eastern terminus of the Albanian network. The new line meant a direct east-west connection between the port cities of Thessaloniki and Durrës and further between Italian ports, northern Greece, Turkey and beyond.
On the Albanian side, the route leads from Lake Ohrid at around 700 meters above sea level past Korça to the border crossing Kapshtica- Krystallopigi ( 1044 m above sea level ).
Planning status
The project has been considered over and over again. In Albania, an extension of the route to Korça and to the Greek border was considered as early as the early 1980s. However, there was no plan about the exact course. The topography with bottlenecks between the mountains and the lake around Pogradec, which are already completely built over, as well as a steep rise of 150 meters south of the city to the Korça plain poses major planning challenges.
The Greek Railways OSE announced in 2016 that a feasibility study should be carried out. It is financed from funds provided by the European Community as pre-accession aid for candidate countries and for trans-European networks .
The entire length of the new line would lead through mountainous terrain that is difficult for railway construction. On both sides of the new line, the connecting lines would have to be upgraded, in some cases completely renovated, around 300 kilometers in total - in Albania the Hekurudha Shqiptare has ceased operations on the line from Librazhd to Pogradec. In addition, Kastoria Airport is to be connected to the new route.
Given the financial situation of Greece, the chances of building the project are not rated high.
In Albania, the easier connection to the Macedonian network and the expansion of the Shkodra – Podgorica connection to Montenegro have priority.
literature
- red: NBS planning Φλώρινα / Florina - Pogradec . In: IBSE telegram 310 (9/2016), p. 5.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Gazeta Ekspress (April 17, 2016): Genc Alizoti: Hekurudha shqiptare drejt falimentimit ( Memento from August 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Pandeli CACI: Fjalor enciklopedik shqiptar . Ed .: Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH . Tirana 1985, Rrjeti hekurudhor (hekurudhat), p. 937 f .
- ↑ Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of Skipetars . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, ISBN 3-922138-28-4 , p. 100 .
- ↑ red: NBS planning .
- ↑ red: NBS planning .