Podgorica – Shkodra railway line

Podgorica – Shkodra
Bajza train station
Route length:	63.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend Nikšić – Podgorica railway from Nikšić Belgrade – Bar railway line from Belgrade 00.00 Podgorica Railway line Belgrade – Bar to Bar Podgorica – Han i Hotit road ( M18 ) Cijevna 13.70 Tuzi tunnel tunnel tunnel 24.7 0(139.7) Border between Albania and Montenegro ( Han i Hotit ) Han i Hotit Street - Vermosh (SH20) Han i Hotit – Shkodra road ( SH1 ) 35.9 0(131.2) Bajza Përroi i Thatë 43.4 0(123.7) Koplik Rjoll 53.6 0(113.9) Grila Han i Hotit – Shkodra road ( SH1 ) Shkodra – Mes road 63.5 0(105.0) Shkodra to Vora (see also HSH route network ) Kilometers in brackets according to HSH information

The Podgorica – Shkodra railway is a 63.5 kilometer long railway line that connects Shkodra  in northern Albania and the Montenegrin capital Podgorica . The line is single-track and not electrified. It is the only international rail link in Albania . Since the opening, the route has only been used for freight transport .

history

In 1979 Albania and Yugoslavia signed a contract to build the railway line. The Yugoslavs did not keep the contractually agreed time frame. On June 1, 1985, Albania and Yugoslavia signed an agreement on the handling of border rail freight traffic . The opening of the Albanian section had already taken place on January 11, 1985; that of the Yugoslav section was not celebrated until November 26, 1985. Regular traffic was only started after a ceremony on August 6, 1986 in Yugoslavia. The operation was in 1991 for the UN - embargo set against Yugoslavia. In 1997 the line was briefly back in operation, but the rails were soon stolen as a result of the unrest in Albania . The whole route was only reopened in 2003, after cross-border traffic to Bajza had been resumed a year earlier. The establishment of a passenger service on this route is being planned.

From January to November 1987 goods to the extent of 60,000 tons were imported into Albania via the railway line, whereas only 6,000 tons were exported. For 2002, when only the Podgorica – Bajza section was in operation, 4800 tonnes were reported. For 2011, a volume of 249,000 tons was reported in international rail traffic.

Chemicals in Bajza station

Hundreds of tons of chemicals and pesticides were deposited in Bajza from 1991 to 2009 , which stranded there and contaminated the area. Some of the pesticides came from Germany and had long been banned in Western Europe.

route

The railway line between Koplik and Shkodra

The line leaves Podgorica train station in a south-westerly direction. Only after about four kilometers, outside Podgorica, does it branch off from the railway line to Bar , first make a curve to the east and cross the plain around Podgorica. After crossing the road from Podgorica to Albania ( M18 ) and the Cijevna river, it runs parallel to the road to the south, but bypasses Tuzi to the east, where the Montenegrin border station is located. As a result, it runs at the foot of the Prokletijes foothills . Shortly before Lake Skadar , she crosses it in a tunnel that is not quite 500 meters long. On the steep bank of the lake there are two more tunnels, the first of which is around two kilometers long and significantly shortens the route compared to the road, while the second is only around 150 meters short and crosses the ascending road.

In the following section, the road and the railway line run parallel along the lake shore, while there is no space for stations at the Božaj / Han i Hotit border crossing. At the end of Lake Hoti , the bay that juts out far to the northeast, the route crosses the plain on a high embankment and makes an arc to the south. Soon the road to Shkodra ( SH1 ) disappears to the east, while the line reaches the large border station west of Bajza.

The large plain around Koplik is crossed by the railway line a few kilometers west of the road that connects the larger settlements. Only south of Koplik, a little north of the long bridge over the bed of the Rjoll stream (Ura e Rjollit) , do the two traffic routes come together again. After about five kilometers, the road crosses the railway line, which sweeps further east to bypass Shkodra on the outskirts and then along the bank of the Kir River . It reaches the train station from the north, southeast of the center of Shkodra.

business

Border stations are Tuzi (Montenegro) and Bajza (Albania). There is no stopping point at the Han i Hotit border crossing .

The line is maintained by ŽICG in Montenegro and by HSH in Albania .

In February 2017, a freight train going to Durrës between Koplik and Shkodra derailed. In general, the bad condition of the track is lamented.

Web links

Commons : Podgorica – Shkodra railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pictures of the opening at Vizion Plus: Zone endaluar - Nje Shqiperi ndryshe, 81-89 (from 0:15:40) on YouTube , June 3, 2014, accessed on March 4, 2019.

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. ↑ David Turnock: The Economy of East Central Europe, 1815-1989: Stages of Transformation in a peripheral region . Routledge, London, New York 2006, ISBN 0-415-18053-8 , pp. 453 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
3. ↑ Albanien-Rundschau - Chronicle . In: German-Albanian Friendship Society (Hrsg.): Albanische Hefte . No. 3 , 1985, pp. 14 .
4. ↑ Frank Valoczy, Geoff Sarbutt: HSH Albanian Railways. Retrieved June 23, 2016 . 
5. ↑ Frank Valoczy, Geoff Sarbutt: Opening Dates of HSH Standard Gauge Lines. In: HSH Albanian Railways. Retrieved June 23, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of Skipetars . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, ISBN 3-922138-28-4 , p. 78 .
7. ↑ Albanien-Rundschau - Chronicle . In: German-Albanian Friendship Society (Hrsg.): Albanische Hefte . No. 3 , 1986, pp. 5 .
8. ↑ ^{a b} ATA (February 13, 2003): Shkoder-Bajze railway ready to operate for transportation of commodities ( Memento of September 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
9. ^ Raymond Hutchings: International Trade, Transportation, Supply and Communications . In: Klaus-Detlev Grothusen (Hrsg.): Albanien (=  Südosteuropa-Handbuch . Volume VII ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-525-36207-2 , pp. 409 .
10. ↑ Treguës të transportit hekurudhor, Detar, rrugor. (XLS) (No longer available online.) Instituti i Statistics , archived from the original on June 23, 2016 ; accessed on June 23, 2016 (English). 
11. ↑ Panorama (September 4, 2009): Stacioni i Bajzës pastrohet nga kimikatet e rrezikshme ( Memento of March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety: Response of the Federal Government to the Minor Question from Members Susanne Kastner, Michael Müller (Düsseldorf), Peter W. Reuschenbach, Dr. Peter Struck, Anke Fuchs (Cologne), Hans-Ulrich Klose and the SPD parliamentary group - printed matter 12/8338. (PDF) Toxic waste in Albania. In: Bundestag. August 25, 1994. Retrieved June 23, 2016 . 
13. ↑ Aksident hekurudhor në Shkodër një tren mallrash del nga shinat. In: Sot News. February 9, 2017, accessed March 10, 2019 (Albanian). 
14. ↑ TV Kopliku: Linja Hekurudhore e degraduar dhe e rrezikshme on YouTube , March 26, 2019, accessed on April 2, 2019.