Rail transport in Albania

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HSH train in Elbasan

The railway takes a sharply declining role in the infrastructure of Albania a. Rail traffic for the transport of people is only available to a very limited extent in Albania. Rail transport is now handled by the state railway company Hekurudha Shqiptare and on the route from Fier to Vlora by the private company Albrail . Before the Second World War there were only a few light railways .

Railway network and companies

Hekurudha Shqiptare

HSH route network

The Hekurudha Shqiptare (HSH) maintains a single-track standard gauge network, which had a total length of 447 kilometers at its peak, but is no longer fully operated today. The network opens up the coastal plains of central and northern Albania as well as the south-east of the country via a mountain route. The railroad never made it to the mountainous regions in the north, northeast and south.

The traffic is handled with Czech diesel locomotives of the type T 669 and rolling stock from different countries. The usual travel speed is 40 km / h, which is significantly lower than that of a car or minibus. As a result, travel times by train are significantly higher compared to other modes of transport, which leads to a further decrease in train passengers.

Improvised timetable 2016 in Vora station

From Durrës , where the main depot is located, lines run via Vora to Shkodra in the north, via Rrogozhina and Elbasan to Pogradec in the southeast, via Rrogozhina and Fier to Vlora in the south and east via Vora to Tirana . Apart from the connection to Shkodra, none of the routes are currently served to the terminus. On most routes in 2017 there were at most one or two connections per day and direction, although operations had to be completely shut down again in 2016. On the route from Fier to Ballsh , only freight traffic is provided.

The international connection is ensured via the only cross-border railway line Podgorica – Shkodra and the port of Durrës . International passenger transport is not offered. There is only one class for the passengers.

Vlora - Selenica light railway

A small mine train run by the Società Italiana delle Miniere di Selenizza connected the bitumen mines of Selenica with the port city of Vlora as the first regular railway connection in Albania since 1923 . The route was around 30 kilometers long and had a small vertex tunnel near Vlora at the transition to the Shushica Valley. The railway line had a gauge of 950 millimeters, but at an unknown time it was re-gauged to 600 millimeters. A four-kilometer branch line led at times from Peshkëpia to Mavrova. In the early 1980s, the last section to the port was shut down; the route ended in a cement factory two kilometers northeast of the port. In the mid-1980s, plans were made to relocate most of the narrow-gauge line and lead it to Novosela between Fier and Vlora. Like Selenica, Novosela is located on the south bank of the Vjosa, about 17 kilometers northwest of the mines.

In 1994 the railway, which had never belonged to the Hekurudha Shqiptarë, was stopped. In the autumn of 1996 all the rails had already been dismantled. Some rail vehicles were found near the Narta saltworks.

Other field and narrow-gauge railways

Various other narrow-gauge railways are mentioned in the literature, most of which belonged to mines or other industrial facilities. Information on the length or operating time is usually unclear. In contrast to the Selenica-Bahn, none of these orbits is recorded in the 1: 50,000 maps from the 1980s.

  • Military narrow-gauge railways of the First World War : An extensive network ran through Albania during the First World War . Further explanation below in the history section.
  • Military narrow-gauge railway of the Second World War : During the Second World War , a 40-kilometer narrow-gauge railway was built between Sukth and Lekaj, a village south of Kavaja , which served as the basis for the first standard-gauge line at the end of the 1940s.
  • Salina Railway from Narta : In the northern part of the lagoon of Narta near Vlora a saline is operated. Part of the facility was made accessible by a 600 mm narrow-gauge railway. In the 1990s, the tracks and several wagons could still be seen.
  • Bustricatal : In the Bustrica valley north of Qukës , which the HSH line crosses by means of a 47 meter high bridge, the remains of a narrow-gauge railway were found.
  • Other mine railways : In the 1930s, private companies built two narrow-gauge railways for the transport of minerals in the coastal plain of Kurbin near Sukth-Vendasi west of Thumana and Patok west of Laç , but these were mined shortly after the war. The simplest field and mine railways were later also used in other mines and forestry operations; A wide variety of mine railways for transporting lorries are still in operation today.
  • Children's playgrounds : In the children's playground in Tirana, now known as the Seven Dwarfs (7 Xhuxhat) , there was a 400 mm narrow-gauge railway for children in the 1980s that did their laps on a small oval. Perhaps there were such railways in other places as well. In 2016, a new electric children's railway was built in the Great Park of Tirana .

Horse-drawn tram and narrow-gauge railways in Vlora

Postcards from the 1920s and 1930s have survived that show a horse-drawn tram in Vlora, which connected the city with the port (Skela) about two kilometers away . Presumably, this railway used at least part of the track of the Selenica railway.

A map of the rail network in Vlora in 1944 shows a branched network of lines in the port of Vlora following the Selenica mine railway. Branch lines led into the city center (around two kilometers, probably the horse-drawn tram tracks), to the northwest (also around two kilometers) and along the bank to the south (around one kilometer). The 950-millimeter tracks led out to the two piers and a larger turning loop that could be used from all directions .

history

Beginnings

Light railway in Durrës around 1917

The first standard gauge line in Albania was not completed until 1947. During the First World War , however, an extensive narrow-gauge network for field railways was built: around 120 kilometers of tracks were laid for military purposes by the Austro-Hungarian army in the years 1914–1918 from Shkodra in the north to the front on the Vjosa in central Albania. Initially only part of the route, in the end the rails connected Shkodra with Lezha , Vora, Durrës, Kavaja, Rrogozhina, Lushnja, Fier and Levan . Further branches led from Rrogozhina via Peqin and Cërrik to Shtërmen and further up the Devoll , from Lezha via Shëngjin to Velipoja -Pulaj on the Buna , to Berat and Tirana. Other sources even speak of 300 kilometers of rails at the end of the war. A connection from Vlora to the network is also mentioned, although this connection would have led via the front line. The narrow-gauge railway was partially used for another ten years. The track width was 600 millimeters and 750 millimeters or 760 millimeters.

At the beginning of the 1920s the Ferrovia Decauville a Valona was built, which connected the bitumen plant of Selenica with the port city of Vlora as an approximately 30 kilometer long mine train .

As early as the beginning of the 20th century, there were repeated plans for individual railway lines in Albania or even international connections. After the Italian occupation of Albania , at least the planning of a connection from Durrës to Tirana began. According to other sources, this line was even built on. A military field railway was built south of Durrës and served as the basis for the construction of the first standard-gauge line at the end of the 1940s.

During the Second World War, a few short field railways operated and the Italians began to build the first lines.

communism

HSH train on the mountainous route to Pogradec

All Albanian railway lines that exist today were built after the Second World War , often in "volunteer" operations of the population and students. The main aim of the communist government was to use the railroad to connect the inland mines with the metalworking factories and ports . The Durrës – Peqin line was opened in 1947 as the first railway line. A connection to Klos in Mattal was only completed as far as Rrëshen .

During communism, the railroad carried a large part of passenger and freight traffic. Branch tracks served industrial companies in Fushë-Kruja , Tirana, Elbasan, Cërrik, Pogradec, Fier, Ballsh and Narta as well as the port of Durrës. Originally, the Durrës train station was located directly on the harbor track, but was later relocated.

In some places field and mine railways were used in mining and forestry.

Post communism

By allowing individual traffic and the expansion of the roads, the railway was pushed to the edge. Today, less than one percent of passenger traffic uses the rail. The transport performance of goods traffic also collapsed due to the economic problems in Albania and the closure of most industrial and mining companies in the 1990s.

Certain lines that were destroyed in the 1990s had to be subsequently restored, while other lines were even dismantled.

In 2010 HSH's income amounted to nine million euros, five million euros of which came from the government. Most of the remaining four million euros come from freight transport and the rental of real estate. Ticket sales did not bring in 5% of the income. The difficult financial situation repeatedly led to operational problems and strikes by the workforce. More and more sections of the route could no longer be served and the timetable was thinned out more and more. In 2013 the Tirana train station was also demolished; the follow-up project has not been implemented to date (2017).

Albrail
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
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to Lushnja
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Fier
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Ballsh
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Fier power station
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Vlora oil port
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to Vlora

In 2015 the Ministry of Transport awarded a concession for the renewal and operation of the routes from Fier to Ballsh and Vlora to two companies called Alb-Star and Matrix Konstruksion . There was talk of an investment of 20 million US dollars . The focus is on the transport of crude oil from the oil fields around Ballsh to the industrial park at the oil port of Vlora. At the beginning of 2019, the first train journeys of the new company Albrail on the restored route were reported.

In 2016, after the bankruptcy of a major customer in the freight sector, rail operations had to be repeatedly stopped because HSH did not have the financial means to buy diesel.

Traffic statistics

Composition by HSH in Kashar station outside Tirana
Development of the number of passengers and the transported tons of goods
year Passengers Goods transported (tons)
1989 000000010500000.000000000010,500,000 000000008048000.00000000008,048,000
1993 000000003961000.00000000003,961,000 000000000539000.0000000000539,000
1995 000000003739000.00000000003,739,000 000000000574000.0000000000574,000
2000 000000002381000.00000000002,381,000 000000000412000.0000000000412,000
2003 000000002070000.00000000002,070,000 000000000520000.0000000000520,000
2005 000000001440000.00000000001,440,000 000000000404000.0000000000404,000
2007 000000001091000.00000000001,091,000 000000000400000.0000000000400,000
2010 000000000430000.0000000000430,000 000000000403000.0000000000403,000
2013 000000000329000.0000000000329,000 000000000151000.0000000000151,000
2014 000000000187000.0000000000187,000 000000000338000.0000000000338,000

In September 2018 it was reported that hardly more than 200 passengers were carried per day, i.e. around 75,000 people a year.

Politics and future plans

The former station of Tirana with the pink station building on the left in April 2014, before a new street boulevard was laid out at this point.

A law from 2016 regulates rail transport in Albania. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy is responsible for rail transport.

The HSH is heavily dependent on the state for the operation and especially for the renewal of the outdated infrastructure. After a change of government, Albania withdrew from the renewal of the Durrës – Tirana line, which had been contractually agreed with General Electric , which resulted in a heavy fine. In 2016 it was announced that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development intended to grant Albania a loan for the renewal of the Tirana-Durrës railway line and for the construction of a seven and a half kilometer feeder to Tirana Airport . The costs are estimated at around € 82 million. The government promised to open the new line in 2019. At the end of 2019, however, the tendering for the construction work was only issued , the costs were stated at € 92 million.

Since the newly expanded line only leads to the new train station on the outskirts of Tirana, a long-term tram will be necessary in Tirana. Two lines are planned: one will run from the new train station in the northeast through the center to the southern outskirts, the other will cross the city from west to east.

Other ideas include the expansion of the pan-European transport corridor VIII , the connection from the Adriatic to the Black Sea , with the connection to the North Macedonian railway network. The north-south connection would also have to be expanded. However, the Albanian state lacks the financial means for these investments.

literature

  • Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of the Skipetaren . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986.
  • Eberhard Rieber: Albania Railway Map / Railway Map Albania . Quail Map Company, Exeter 1990, ISBN 0-900609-68-0 .
  • German Society for Railway History eV (Ed.): The Albanian Railways. A status report from autumn 1996 . Self-published, Karlsruhe 1998, ISBN 3-921700-76-0 .
  • 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 .

Web links

Commons : Rail Transport in Albania  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Albanian Railways . A status report from autumn 1996. In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Eisenbahngeschichte e. V. (Ed.): Railways and museums. DGEG monographs . Episode 44.Werl 1998, ISBN 3-921700-76-0 .
  2. SIMS - Societa Italiana delle Miniere di Selenizza. In: HSH Albanian Railways - Hekurudha e Shqiperise. March 7, 1998, accessed July 8, 2013 .
  3. a b c d R.A. Bowen: Albanian narrow gauge . In: The Albanian Railways. A status report from autumn 1996 (= German Society for Railway History eV [Hrsg.]: Railways and Museums. Monographs of the DGEG . Volume 44). Self-published, Karlsruhe 1998, ISBN 3-921700-76-0 , p. 29-31 .
  4. Official map 1: 50,000 of the military cartographic office of Albania, sheet K-34-124-C, Tirana 1982
  5. a b c d e Pre-1930 760mm-gauge Network. Retrieved April 15, 2017 .
  6. a b c d e f g Eberhard Rieber: Albania Railway Map / Railway map of Albania . Quail Map Company, Exeter 1990, ISBN 0-900609-68-0 .
  7. Documentary film by the Shqipëria e re cinema studio about forestry at Fushë-Arrëz from 1973 on YouTube , accessed on March 1, 2020.
  8. Albánie hnědouhelný dul - Albanian lignite mine in 1995 on YouTube
  9. ^ Matthias Schilling: Albania 2016. In: Feldbahn Dossenheim. Retrieved March 1, 2020 .
  10. Masakra e bentonite në Parkun e liqenit - Pamjet më të fundit. In: Exit. April 9, 2016, Retrieved May 21, 2017 (Albanian).
  11. Pirro Stefa: Vlora . Mali Pleshti, Tirana 2012, ISBN 978-9928-14710-3 , p. 112 f .
  12. a b c Alqi Gjika: Hekurudha Shqiptare. In: T669.net. Retrieved April 27, 2020 (Albanian).
  13. Through the war by cable car. In: albanien.ch. December 16, 2015, accessed April 15, 2017 .
  14. a b c d T.J .: Correspondent's diary, Day three: Albania's long-suffering railways. In: The Economist. July 19, 2010, accessed April 13, 2017 .
  15. Hekurudhat Fier-Ballsh, Fier-Vlorë, jepen me koncesion. 20 mln USD investim. In: Gazeta Panorama Online. October 15, 2015, accessed on October 26, 2015 (Albanian): "Sasia mesatare e transportuar e mallrave / mineraleve për vit kalendarik pritet të jetë 2.5 milionë tonë dhe numri i pasagjerëve 307 mijë në vit."
  16. ^ Albanian Transport: Stacioni Fier: Treni i kompanisë ALBRAIL niset drejt Vlorës Lokomotiva ČKD 770 526-2. In: Facebook. February 24, 2019, Retrieved February 24, 2019 (Albanian).
  17. Alqi Gjika: 770 526-2 Albrail on YouTube , January 23, 2019, accessed February 24, 2019.
  18. How to travel by train & ferry from London to Albania… In: The Man in Seat 61. Retrieved on April 13, 2017 (English): “Update December 2016: No trains running in Albania! It's happened again (it happened in March 2016), another financial crisis that has brought all Albanian trains to a halt […] Update February 2017: Some trains are now running again, at least Durres-Kashar. "
  19. Transport Hekurudhor i pasagjerëve dhe mallrave (1993-2014). (XLS) In: INSTAT . Archived from the original on November 13, 2015 ; Retrieved December 5, 2015 (Albanian).
  20. ^ 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. 406-409 .
  21. Durrës Hekurudha Shqiptare në gjendje të mjeruar, vetëm 205 udhëtarë në ditë on YouTube
  22. Ligj No. 142/2016 “Kodi Hekurudhor i Republikës së Shqipërisë”. (PDF) December 22, 2016, archived from the original on April 14, 2017 ; Retrieved April 13, 2017 (Albanian).
  23. ^ Rail Transport. In: Ministria e Infrastruktures dhe Energjise. Retrieved May 12, 2019 .
  24. Albania to pay 11 mil. € to GE over breach… May 24, 2010, accessed April 13, 2017 .
  25. EBRD Considers up to EUR 34 mln loan for Albanian Railways. In: Invest in Albania. June 22, 2016, accessed April 14, 2017 .
  26. Hekurudha Tiranë-Rinas-Durrës, Haxhinasto: Projekti përfundon në 2019. In: Top Channel. June 25, 2016, Retrieved May 12, 2019 (Albanian).
  27. ^ Tender begins for Albania's most important rail project. In: Railway Pro. November 1, 2019, accessed November 20, 2019 .
  28. Detailed Design of Railway Line Durrës - Tirana Public Transport Terminal (PTT) and of New Railway Connection to Rinas Airport (TIA) and the Final / Economic Proposal of the whole Albanian Railway Network. Technical Report. (PDF) In: shqiperia.com. Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, December 2015, accessed April 15, 2017 (Albanian).
  29. Elena Ilie: Tirana plans to develop two tram lines. In: Railway Pro Communication Platform. June 26, 2013, accessed April 15, 2017 .
  30. ^ Corridor VIII - Pre-feasibility study on the development of the railway axis - Final report. (PDF) In: Corridor VIII Secretariat. September 2007, accessed April 14, 2017 .