- Published: 06.12.2012.
Gov't gives up on Zagreb-Rijeka lowland railway project
ZAGREB, Dec 6 (Hina) - The government has backed down from the construction of a lowland railway line between Zagreb and Rijeka and will instead construct a new track from Zagreb to Skradnik, half way between Zagreb and Rijeka. The old railway on the Skradnik to Rijeka leg will be repaired, with nine kilometres of a new rail line including tunnels, the Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Sinisa Hajdas Doncic, said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
The Zagreb-Rijeka rail line and the rail line along Corridor X (Bregana - Tovarnik) are ideal to transport goods but not for passenger transport. Based on European standards, both Zagreb and Rijeka do not have a sufficient population to render a strong passenger railway network feasible. Investments in the railway will be primarily to facilitate goods transportation.
A loan agreed with the World Bank for the construction of the Zagreb I & II wharves by 2017 should raise the Rijeka Port capacity to handle 1.5 million containers compared to its current capacity of 150,000 containers. It would not be feasible to construct a new rail line on the Skradnik-Rijeka leg but rather to improve the line where most of the route would remain a dual-track electrified line and a smaller stretch will remain a single-track line, said Hajdas Doncic.
The minister said that "the Skradnik-Rijeka leg will be ironed out and that's the end of the story of the Rijeka transport route for the next 10 to 15 years. If in the future a "piece of the pie" in transportation from Hamburg to Rotterdam was to make its way to the Rijeka Port, then that route would be sufficient to draw out all the freight from the port." He added that his ministry would do all it could to ensure key Croatian routes were included in Europe's corridor network.
The work on the railway will cost around 3.6 billion euro of which the EU should cover 3 billion in the 2014-2020 period while Croatia's share would be around 600 million euro.
The government approved the purchase of 44 trains for passenger transport and it is expected that the Gredelj rolling stock manufacturer will apply for the tender.
(Hina) sp
News
The Zagreb-Rijeka rail line and the rail line along Corridor X (Bregana - Tovarnik) are ideal to transport goods but not for passenger transport. Based on European standards, both Zagreb and Rijeka do not have a sufficient population to render a strong passenger railway network feasible. Investments in the railway will be primarily to facilitate goods transportation.
A loan agreed with the World Bank for the construction of the Zagreb I & II wharves by 2017 should raise the Rijeka Port capacity to handle 1.5 million containers compared to its current capacity of 150,000 containers. It would not be feasible to construct a new rail line on the Skradnik-Rijeka leg but rather to improve the line where most of the route would remain a dual-track electrified line and a smaller stretch will remain a single-track line, said Hajdas Doncic.
The minister said that "the Skradnik-Rijeka leg will be ironed out and that's the end of the story of the Rijeka transport route for the next 10 to 15 years. If in the future a "piece of the pie" in transportation from Hamburg to Rotterdam was to make its way to the Rijeka Port, then that route would be sufficient to draw out all the freight from the port." He added that his ministry would do all it could to ensure key Croatian routes were included in Europe's corridor network.
The work on the railway will cost around 3.6 billion euro of which the EU should cover 3 billion in the 2014-2020 period while Croatia's share would be around 600 million euro.
The government approved the purchase of 44 trains for passenger transport and it is expected that the Gredelj rolling stock manufacturer will apply for the tender.
(Hina) sp