Serbia - General Information
Country Name
Serbia (Srbija)
National railway system
Železnice Serbije (ŽS).
Official Website
Language
Serbian.
Currency
The Dinar is the normal currency, with Euros also being accepted. Most banks and border stations have currency exchange facilities.
UIC code
Numeric 72; alpha SRB
Timetable
Red Vožnje. Printed in Serbian throughout.
Map
Timetable Map
A fold-out, near-geographic route diagram is included in the timetable, but many lines are shown which no longer have a passenger service.
Other Maps
There is no published map of the railways of Serbia, except that in M.G. Ball's "European Railway Atlas".
Gauge
Standard.
Electrification
25kV 50Hz.
Rule of the road
Right.
Other Railways
None.
Tourist Lines
A long section of the former Beograd - Sarajevo 760mm gauge line, about 30 km west of Užice, has been re-opened: the "Sarganska Osmica", between Sargan and Mokra Gora stations, including a "figure of eight": www.zlatibor.co.yu/voz/english/--%20sarganska8%20--.htm.
A short section of 600mm gauge forestry railway has been rebuilt, also near Mokra Gora.
Metro
None
Trams
Beograd
Recent and future changes
NATO air strikes in March - June 1999 caused much damage to the country's railway system. The main routes have been restored, including a new road+rail bridge over the Dunav (Danube) river at Novi Sad; however the continuing economic situation means that there is a severe shortage of locomotives and rolling stock.
Due to poor track condition, from 14 May 2004 severe speed limits were imposed on table 75 trains between Doljevac and Kuršumlija, and the single train pair beyond Kuršumlija to Kosanička Rača was cancelled. The service was reinstated a few weeks later but may have been removed again.
A weak bridge between Tomaševac and Orlovat Stajalište means that trains on table 40 are presently terminating at halts on each side of the bridge (leve obale Tomaševačkog mosta and desne obale Tomaševačkog mosta). Passengers walk across the bridge. This situation is likely to last for a considerable period as repair funds appear not to be available.
A number of passenger services have ceased since the late 1990s. In most cases freight traffic remains but prospects of passenger re-opening are slim:
- Table 22: Gajdobra - Bačka Palanka
- Table 23: Karavukovo - Bač
- Table 32: Novi Sad - Bečej
- Novi Sad - Beočin
- Table 35: Čoka - Novi Kneževac
- Table 41: Kikinda - Banatško Aranđelovo
- Table 42: Sečanj - Jaša Tomić
- Table 46: Požarevac - Kostolac
- Paraćin - Stari Popovac
The following services changed with the 15 December 2002 timetable:
- The single early morning working over the Vražogrnac avoiding line (Trnavac – Rgotina) ceased.
- A service restarted on table 31, Novi Sad - Orlovat Stajalište.
The following services ceased from or before the start of the December 2005 timetable:
- Table 11: Šid – Bijeljina
- Table 12: Loznica – Zvornik Grad (already closed for some time)
- Table 24: Sombor – Apatin Fabrika
- Table 43: Zrenjanin – Vršac – Bela Crkva (Boka - Bela Crkva had already closed)
- The Table 85 route between Niš and Fushë-Kosovë/Kosovo Polje closed south of Kosanička Rača in the late 1990s, and between Kuršumlija and Kosanička Rača in 2004. This has now been re-instated and continues as far as Merdare, almost at the border with Kosovo.
A new route from Valjevo via Zvornik (in Serbia) to Tuzla (in Bosnia-Hercegovina) was started before the break-up of Yugoslavia. Completion of the Zvornik to Tuzla section was interrupted by the war in 1991 but has since been largely finished. The line carries no regular traffic. Note that this line is shown wrongly, or not at all, on many maps, and actually runs from Rasputnica [= junction] Donja Borina, just south of Brasina on the line to Zvornik Grad, via a cross-border river bridge to Zvornik Novi (where there is a large works) then on to Caparde and Kalesija before ending at Živinice, which is on a freight line south from Tuzla. A Beograd - Banja Luka service was intended to run this way [for a period Thomas Cook's timetable showed a train "subject to confirmation"] but ran instead via Šamac (see above), possibly because of the poor track condition on the ŽS line between Ruma and Zvornik. Work on the Valjevo to Zvornik section was stopped - some construction work can be seen at the Valjevo end - but there are plans of a restart using EU finance.
There are optimistic plans by ŽRS to connect the isolated Bijeljina - Velino Selo - Sid ŽS line to the Doboj - Šamac line, branching off just north of Milosevac on the Šamac line and running through Brčko to Bijeljina. This would provide a direct link to Serbia, to eliminate the need to cross into Croatia or the Muslim-Croat Federation, and would connect the western and southern parts of the Republika Srpska.
The Beograd - Bar line passes through Bosnia-Hercegovina (Republika Srpska) for a short distance, including stations at Jablanice and Štrpci.
Special Notes
In June 2006 Montenegro became independent of the former combined "Serbia and Montenegro", which on 4 February 2003 had replaced the former name "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia".
