Transport in Croatia - Rail Transport

Rail Transport

There are several major railway routes in the country:

• from Zagreb to Vinkovci (and on to Belgrade, Serbia)
• from Zagreb to Osijek via Koprivnica (but still faster via the southern line, changing at Strizivojna–Vrpolje)
• from Zagreb to Rijeka
• from Zagreb to Split

There are also other routes to Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

The railways need to be modernized because since the disintegration of Yugoslavia there have been hardly any investment in railway infrastructure. Many important routes are not electrified and are only single track traffic around 'bends'. Some improvements have been made in the last ten years. A result of this has been an increase in the maximum speed on the railway line on the Pan-European Corridor X, from the Slovenian border via Zagreb, Novska, Vinkovci to the Serbian border. In places the line's speed limit has been raised from 80 km/h (50 mph) to 120 km/h (75 mph), and plans have been made to raise this further to 160 km/h (100 mph) on certain sections. The railway line of the Pan-European Corridor Vb, from the Hungarian border via Koprivnica, Zagreb, Karlovac to the seaport of Rijeka has a slow section through Gorski Kotar, which is planned to undergo a major overhaul. The railway line of the Pan-European Corridor Vc, from the Hungarian border via Beli Manastir, Osijek, Đakovo or Vinkovci, Slavonski Šamac, to the Bosnian border, is also being modernised, the aim is to allow speeds of up to 160 km/h along the entire length.

The official rail speed record in Croatia is 181 km/h (112 mph). This is just below the official 200 km/h high speed rail definition. This speed is never reached in regular service. Croatia does have a locomotive class capable of this speed, and during the Yugoslav era there were plans for 'high speed' rail. The increasingly elderly high-speed rolling stock has had its speed limited to 120 km/h for safety reasons.

Recently Croatian Railways introduced a series of modern tilting trains produced by the German branch of Bombardier Transportation. They usually deployed on the mountainous route between the two largest Croatian cities, Zagreb and Split. Although they can sometimes be found on InterCity routes in the continental part of the country. The trains on the Zagreb-Split route offer passengers a more comfortable and quicker journey. The previous service used to take 9 hours, whereas the tilting trains take no more than 5.5 hours. There are plans to expand the tilting train service since they turned out to be very profitable on longer routes.

Croatian Railways aims to revitalize rail traffic through further improvements. Thus, establishing rail as serious competitor to the car, particularly during the busy the summer months.

Croatian Railways' plan to build their first high-speed railway service is progressing. Construction of an entirely new line from Karlovac to Rijeka, and reconstruction of the line from the Hungarian border to Karlovac should have originally begun in the Fall of 2007. The line is going to be entirely electrified and in order to speed up the journey even more shall be 269 km (167 mi) long from end to end, 61 km (38 mi) shorter than the existing line. The journey from Zagreb to Rijeka will be cut to one hour compared to 4 hours with the existing track. The line is intended to carry the increasing amount of goods that enter Europe, at the Croatian port of Rijeka and are then transported to destinations across central and eastern Europe. The plans have originally foreseen 2008-2010 as the date for completion. Due to the world economic crisis, building start date is prolonged to an yet undefined date. The project plans have been drawn, however.

Pan-European Corridor X is going to be upgraded to higher speed sometime in the future. Possibly by building a new high capacity connection line from Sisak via Kutina to Lipovljani. The line should allow for speeds of up to 250 km/h.

Statistics:

Railway length (as of 2006):

• total: 2,726 km (1,694 mi)
• standard gauge, 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄₂ in): 2,726 km (1,694 mi) (1,199 km/745 mi electrified)