North Macedonia - General Information
Country Name
North Macedonia (Severna Makedonija/Северна Македонија). Officially the Republic of North Macedonia (Republika Severna Makedonija/Република Северна Македонија).
The country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in September 1991 and until February 2019 was officially the Republic of Macedonia. However, as a result of objections from Greece to use of the name 'Macedonia', the country joined the United Nations as the 'Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia' (FYROM). It was announced in June 2018 that, with the agreement of Greece, the country was to be renamed the Republic of North Macedonia (Severna Makedonija). The change was overwhelmingly approved in a non-binding referendum. The parliament voted for the name change in mid-October 2018 and it was implemented in February 2019.
National railway system
National Railway Operator
Language
Macedonian, using Cyrillic script.
Currency
Macedonian Denar (MKD); 1MKD = 100 Deni
UIC code
numeric 65; alpha MK
Timetable
Journey Planner
The Macedonian Railways Journey Planner appears to have been discontinued. Travellers will need to use the downloadable timetable.
Downloadable Timetable
Departure and arrival times from Skopje can be found here but only in Macedonian Cyrillic script
Note that меѓународен воз по релации (превземи) merely accesses HAFAS, for international services.
A good unofficial timetable in German Linien- und Tabellenfahrpläne had 2017/18 information loaded as at 9 August 2018.
Printed Timetable
None known.
Engineering Information
None.
Bus Information
A useful site is BalkanViator
Maps
Printed Maps
- European Railway Atlas: Scandinavia and Eastern Europe by M.G. Ball (1993) (ISBN 0-7110-2072-4)
- European Railway Atlas by M.G. Ball (2008 onwards)
Web-based Maps
- Annex No. 1 of the Network Statement contains some useful maps
- Thorsten Büker's Map of Albania and Macedonia and Map of Skopje. Note these maps date from 2011 and are no longer updated.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure Authority
The Macedonian Railways Infrastructure website can be found here
Network Statement
The 2018-2019 network statement is available in Macedonian here. There is no English version on the website.
The 2016-2017 Network Statement (in English) can be downloaded here.
Gauge
Standard.
Electrification
25kV 50Hz.
Rule of the road
Right, but the vast majority of the network is single track.
Distances
Table No. 1 in Annex No. 2 of the Network Statement gives distances for each station
Other Railways
None.
Tourist Lines
None.
Metro
None.
Trams
None.
Recent and future changes
In December 2018 the EBRD agreed to provide €68.6m of co-financing for construction of the 34 km Beljakovce – Kriva Palanka line, the second phase of a direct rail link between Skopje and Sofia. It provided a €46.4m 15-year loan in 2012 to fund the 30.8 km Kumanovo – Beljakovce line, the first phase of this project. The final phase would take the line over the border to Gyueshevo.
Work resumed in February 2018 on rebuilding the Bitola - Kremenica - Neos Kafkasos (Greece) line, which has been out of use for several years. It was to have reopened by 2014 but the project has been subject to delays and cancellations. As at October 2018 a fair amount of track had been laid.
In 2018 the only passenger service operating over the Tabanovci - Preševo border crossing into Serbia was the summer-only train pair 334 and 335, between Topčider (Beograd) and Thessaloníki via Skopje; these trains ran from 1 June to 1 October. In practice the cross-border service into Greece between Gevgelija and Thessaloníki was still provided by buses.
It is reported that the international trains shown in the timetable as running between Skopje and Hani-i-Elezit (Kosovo), for connections to/from Pristinë, are usually replaced by buses or cancelled; further information would be welcomed by the compilers.
Services between Niš(ŽS) and Skopje were suspended from 20 October 2016 because of engineering work but reinstated for the summer season from 1 June 2017.
Owing to the migrant crisis, with effect from 21 August 2015, until further notice the Thessaloniki - Idomeni - Gevgelija section of the Thessaloniki - Beograd train has been a coach connection.
This Gevgelija - Idomeni cross-border service into Greece has been intermittently suspended previously, it ceased from 13 February 2011 along with all other border crossings with Greece but then a weekly summer-only service reportedly ran between July and September 2012. Then the Beograd [overnight] - Skopje - Thessaloniki and vv summer only service was reintroduced from 10 May 2014 until as above.
Special Notes
None.