Rail transport in Kosovo

Kosovo's railway network

Trainkos
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend to Belgrade ( Železnice Srbije ) State border with Serbia Lešak Leposavić Zvečan Kosovska Mitrovica Sever Mitrovica Vushtrria Prilluzha Obiliq to Niš ( Železnice Srbije ) State border with Serbia Livadhia Podujeva Bardhosh Pristina Fushë Kosova Golesh mine Drenas Bardh Klina Peja Xërxa Krusha e Vogël Prizren Mirad / Teretna Lipjan Bablak Ferizaj Gurëz Kaçanik Han i Elezit State border with North Macedonia to Skopje ( Makedonski Železnici )

The rail traffic in Kosovo plays in the entire transport event in the country only a marginal role on a by the consequences of the dissolution of Yugoslavia rudimentary and in the meantime only limited traffic-grade rail network.

history

In 1873 the first railway line was built on what is now Kosovo. It led from Skopje ( North Macedonia ) in the south via Hani i Elezit and Fushë Kosova in a northerly direction to Mitrovica . It was built by the Compagnie des Chemins de fer Orientaux (CO), a railway company with an Ottoman concession .

After the First World War , the railway infrastructure of this private company, insofar as it lay on the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , to which Kosovo now belonged, became state property. Between 1929 and 1991 the lines of the former CO were operated there by the Jugoslovenske Železnice (JŽ) and then passed to the Železnice Srbije (ŽS) with the break-up of Yugoslavia . After the Kosovo War in 1999, the parts of the ŽS located in Kosovo formed the Hekurudhat e Kosovës (HK) or Kosovske Železnice (KŽ), which began regular operations in 2001. Between 1999 and 2001, the use of Kosovar railways was free.

On 3 March 2008 (three weeks after the declaration of independence of Kosovo) which gave Serbian Railways ŽS known to be after nine years again the "control over their infrastructure in northern Kosovo " between the stations LESÁK ( border station of Kosovo to Serbia) and Zvečan at Mitrovica took over. As soon as the operational safety was established according to the Serbian standards, the ŽS declared to resume rail traffic on this route. To this end, 50 Serbian railway workers who had previously worked for the Kosovar railway were to be taken over by the Serbian railway. These had previously stopped a passenger train running between Fushë Kosova and Lešak in Zvečan. At the time of the announcement, the Serbian Railway had not informed the UNMIK mission of its decision.

In September 2011, the Kosovar railways were divided into two companies: the railway company Trainkos and the railway infrastructure company Infrakos .

Rail network

Infrakos had a rail network of 437 kilometers in length, 333 kilometers of which were used for passenger and freight traffic and 104 kilometers for goods traffic only. The overall non- electrified network essentially consisted of two lines crossing in Fushë Kosova , the line

• Kraljevo in western Serbia via Mitrovica and Fushë Kosova to Skopje in North Macedonia , the main route and
• Niš in southern Serbia via the capital Pristina and Fushë Kosova in two branches to Peja and Prizren .

The remaining sections of the route have been without rail traffic for a long time. For years there have been plans to extend the section from Prizren to Albania in order to establish a connection to the Hekurudha Shqiptare network. So far, these plans have not gone beyond letters of intent.

business

passenger traffic

Rail passenger transport has largely come to a standstill in Kosovo.

National

Intercity at Bablak

A distinction was made between the local train , Freedom of Movement and InterCity train types. When rolling stock mostly came Y1 in double traction or Di 3 with two former SJ - passenger cars used.

Until March 2008, two Freedom of Movement train pairs ran from Fushë Kosova to Lešak (north of Leposavić ), but this traffic had to be abandoned due to the tensions with Serbia. Two pairs of local trains ran between Pristina and Peja every day, with one train staying overnight in Peja. The trains needed just under two hours for this route. Operation of the line ceased on August 3, 2017 after the state stopped payments to the railways in June and the company's own funds had been used up. The IC 760/761 has been operating here since October 5, 2017, after the state pays for a pair of trains per day again.

International

Two pairs of Freedom of Movement trains and a pair of local trains ran between Fushë Kosova and Han i Elezit (border with North Macedonia). As the only international passenger train connection from Kosovo (and the only passenger train in the country at all) today the InterCity train pair (IC 891/892) runs from Pristina via Fushë Kosova to Skopje and back. The InterCity usually consists of a former SJ car from the Trainkos and a passenger car from the Makedonski železnici . The trains take just under an hour and a half to cover the Fushë Kosova-Han i Elezit route.

In 2013, diesel railcars of the Serbian class 711 ran twice a day in northern Kosvo from Kraljevo via Raška and the border station Lešak to Zvečan, the last station before Mitrovica and also the last place in the area predominantly inhabited by Serbs. This section is used to exchange people and goods with Serbia, so that, among other things, fuel is transported to the Kosovar state in Kosovo without customs duties. The stations are manned by Serbian staff, and tickets are paid for in dinars. Political tensions prevent any train traffic between Zvečan and Mitrovica. South of Mitrovica, the line is basically operated by the Kosovar railways, but there is regular freight traffic only to Obiliq.

Freight transport

Di 3 008 (ex NSB Di 3b 643) "NOHAB" with freight train

International freight traffic is also handled by Han i Elezit, the container terminal is located near Pristina Airport at Mirad train station . The national freight transport serves several companies scattered across the entire national territory.

literature

• Herbert Kröll: The railways in Kosovo . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 8–9 / 2001, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 356 f.

Web links

Commons : Trainkos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Trainkos
• Official website of Infrakos
• Railway in Kosovo from 1874 to the present day
• List of rolling stock for Kosovo Railways

Remarks

1. ↑ Freedom of Movement stands for UNDP -organized traffic for the national minorities of Serbs and Roma .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Standard, March 3, 2008
2. ↑ On renaming: bac: New entry in Kosovo . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 12/2011, p. 602.
3. ↑ mr: Kososvo almost without passenger trains . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 10 (2017). ISSN 1421-2811, p. 512.
4. ↑ hjs: Route Fushë Kosovë / Kosovo Polje - Pejë / Peć . In: IBSE telegram 323 (10/2017), p. 7.
5. ↑ mr: Kososvo almost without passenger trains . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 10 (2017). ISSN 1421-2811, p. 512.
6. ↑ Timetable information for the Serbian Railways .
7. ^ Travel report on the "Balkan Express" ( Memento from December 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).