NEWS FLASH
Slovenia has launched formal procedures to build a railway linking Ljubljana’s city centre to its airport as it seeks to improve rail infrastructure and promote green mobility. The Infrastructure Agency has published a public tender to obtain "an expert opinion" for the project and launched an initiative for the drafting of a relevant national spatial plan. The tender is the first stage in the process to build the approximately 20-kilometre rail line. The expert opinion will be completed by 2025. Feasibility studies will then take place and the spatial plan adopted between 2026 and 2030, according to the agency.
They might be struggling to attract passengers, but when it comes to infrastructure they are definitely ahead of any airport in Ex-Yu. Bravo for the initiative.
ReplyDeleteThis will only make sense in conjunction of extending the line to Kranj and up northwards. Problem I see in Kranj, the railways station is in the outerskirds of Kranj, down where the Sava flows. Already now that station is far from the living area of Kranj and is therefore not convenient reachable for 95% of Kranjs citizens. A chance I see is the north of Kranj but the challenge there is the construction. Its all living area, with houses. But SLO def needs to invest into its railways infrastructure. Travel times are far too long, especially if u are travelling beyond SLO. U just need too much time passing thru SLO.
ReplyDeleteWell done to the Slovenians for this. In the times we live unless you have the cheapest model of ultra low cost then things like this are needed. Belgrade and Zagreb should follow this to grow and compete.
ReplyDeleteZagreb is already building a train link to the airport, the feasibility study is underway, public tender will be issued after that and work on the new link could start around 2027/8. It'll be underground link linking the airport and nearby town of Velika Gorica with the main railway station. Croatia just got approval for €26 billion investment in to its railways, to be spent between 2025 to 2035. New airport link, new main Railway Station in Zagreb and high speed line between Zagreb and Rijeka and Zagreb - Split are to be financed out of new massive rail modernization program.
DeleteIf you go to HZ Infra website you can look for all future investment programs, including airport link. Which should be built by 2030. Airport link is 11,5km long, of this 10km is underground. Estimated cost of the link is around €250-300 million and work on the line should start in 2028 at the latest and be completed by 2030 or there about. Work on new elevated main railway Station will commence when work on Zagreb rail by-pass is completed. New elevated main railway station will be similar in concept to main station in Vienna, with 8 platforms raised 6m above current level.
https://www.hzinfra.hr/
https://ibb.co/6tnsB60 - image of new link
https://dnevnik.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/kolodvor-u-zraku-i-to-u-zagrebu-hoce-li-iznad-ulica-glavnog-grada-voziti-vlakovi---769207.html - new main station propject.
Thanks for that info. Soinds great and exciting for Zagreb and Croatia.
DeleteAny other good links to follow these developments?
The news about it was published here some time ago.
Delete@16:33 I read about the plan for zagreb, and similair with Belgrade building a metro it will be finished finished and operational by 2028 that they will probably add a line to the airport.
Deletebut for some reason I feel Slovenia will still get it finished first. haha
@Slav.Man19:36
DeleteNo, they plan to start working on the line in 2028, this is how long it takes to plan and get all the paperwork in order, The feasability study should be completed first, which I expect will be done by the end of next year, this will followed by a financial package for the project, which includes various EU funds and Croatian state budget. Financial package takes around 18 months, which means late 2026, this is followed by a project design and drawings to be finalized, which can take another 12 months, so earliest we can expect work on new link to start in 2028. Slovenia has simmilar or identical proceedrue in place as this is standard EU proceedure. So earliest work on any future airport link could start in mid 2027 if all stars align, or more likelly first half of 2028, work will last around 2 years and cost €300-320 million, this is if route via Velika Gorica, a stright line to Airport and back will be a lot cheaper option, it'll be also underground for most of the route, avoids Velika Gorica and, entire route is 5.7km long and will cost around €100-120 million, as it connects to Zagreb - Sisak line.
Anonymous19:20
https://www.poslovni.hr/hrvatska/hrvatskoj-26-milijardi-eura-i-prometno-povezanje-s-kljucnim-europskim-sredistima-4385551
Yes, there are quite a few, just head to EU commision for more info, but here is an article in Poslovni , good source of economic news. Route Zagreb - Dreznica - Otocac - Perusic - Gospic - Gracac - Drnis - Split is a longer term plan to build around 230km of high speed line with existing 65km section Perusic - Gracac to be modernized, electrified and double tracked, it is one of EU cruical transport corridors and will be financed out of the EU budget, value of this project is around €5 billion, 85% financed by the EU. Sorry for typos, late here. But google for more info. Rijeka - Zagreb via Novi Vinodolski - Drezenica - Karlovac - Zagreb is another route that will be constructed, it is high speed line and this is ongiong project, section between Zagreb and Karlovac is currently being preppared for works which will last around 2 years, €380 million section won't be a high speed, but limited to 160kmph, but new section i.e 3rd and 4th rail tracks will be built for high speed following new route from Rijeka to Zagreb, it'll cost 3.2 billion, was approved by the EU and Croatian Government, works should start in 2026.
https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/377432 - interesting read, Croatian gov document, offical pdf site, outlines some railway and airport developments in coming decade. long read, but very detailed.
DeleteWhy does Croatia always get high percentage of EU funding? 85%??!! Their new bridge on the coast was mainly paid by EU. Checked the information on the new Divaca - Koper track Slovenia is building and it says they got 25% of EU funding. Even in Austria, we never get more than 30%.
DeleteThanks for all the info
Deletehttps://www.railwaypro.com/wp/a-new-european-funding-for-divaca-koper-rail-project/
Delete@Anonymous12:17
Depends if project is on a main transport corridor and what funding project has secured before it was given a go ahead, most likely Koper-Divaca was given only some EU funding as it didn't apply for cohesion funding and had to secure commercial loans, quick glance, funding requirements in 2020 when financial construct was completed indicate to me at first glance that there was no EU funding due to lateness of project applying for EU funding, had they applied for RU funding in 2015/16 they’d be just in time. 2020, all they could apply is for structural EU funding in tune of €154 million and EIB €250 million loan. It is all how you apply for funding and when. Spain for example built its entire high speed rail system with EU funding. Perhaps sending, or even better employing Spanish experts on EU funding would be smart move. EU funding has its drawbacks, it takes longer to implement and execute project, sometimes as much as a decade longer.
Belgrade could never 😭
ReplyDeleteTechnically out of Zagreb, Ljubljana and Belgrade, the latter has the easiest job.
DeleteNow they could build it, but first they should get enough trains to run on it. Serbian railway, excluding "SOKO" is in worse state then it was in late 90's.
Yeah thats sad but I hope Soko is just the start of a major railway overhaul.Why is it easier to build in Belgrade? The flat Srem terrain maybe?
DeleteDidn't Serbian railways bought a bunch of flirt trains ???? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_stock_of_the_Serbian_Railways, or do you mean rail track is in bad shape ?
DeleteRail itself is in bad shape. Also a lot of old trains elsewhere, especially on BG Voz.
DeleteHow many average hourly passengers are expected in the first couple of years of operations? There is no way it could even reach just 100. Hardly a justification for investment in 20 km rail line.
ReplyDeleteThink long term.
DeleteReally loooong term, when LJU airport gets to 10 million annual passengers.
DeleteEven if this is not worth for the airport itself, the link could make it faster to get to Jesenice/Austria and offer an airport stop in between.
DeleteThere is a lot of towns in the area. Kranj itself is Slovenia’s 4th largest “city”. Many villages in the around the airport are rapidly growing due to proximity to Ljubljana and the expensive housing in the city. For example Ljubljana itself has around 300k people, while the metropolitan area has around 500k people. The traffic is worsening every year due it and we need decent regional rail in and around Ljubljana.
DeleteWishful thinking
ReplyDeleteIts time already !!! Too slow Slovenia
ReplyDeleteFirst run busses properly. Then we can think of trains.
ReplyDelete