As of 1 July, Croatia joins the 27 member states of the European Union. A World Bank report shows that the state to the Adriatic Sea has an increasing and competitive economy, as well as the appropriate institutional capacity to face the EU membership demands.
Croatia is crossed by three pan-European transport corridors and the authorities carried out complex investment programmes to develop the country’s sections on these three transport corridors. However, public money went to the road transport sector, so that today the Croatian railway transport is confronted with many challenges and requires major investments to be fully integrated into the Trans-European transport network.
The Croatian National Railway Company has gone through serious changes and is now divided into five independent companies: HŽ Holding, HŽ Passenger Transport, HŽ Cargo, HŽ Infrastructure and HŽ Traction.
Croatian Railways is still in a transition period, the restructuring and privatisation of certain parts are not fully finalized because the company lacks a clearer strategy on the future activities of the railway area. The Croatian railway network has 2.723 km of which 254 km of double track and 985 km of electrified track. Croatia benefits from several important railway sections, part of them coming from Slovenia to Dobova via Zagreb, to Slavonski Brod and to Tovarnik, from Zagreb to Osijek and then to the sections Zagreb – Rjeka, Zagreb – Split.
Croatia has railway connections to the borders with Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. The most important railway line is Dobova – Tovarnik, part of the pan-European corridor X, electrified on most of its double rail sections; at the same time, it is the railway with the highest traffic. For the moment, passenger and freight transport are not considered fully efficient, but the decision-makers in the Croatian railway sector make significant efforts to improve the railway infrastructure, especially that on the pan-European Corridor X.
Croatian infrastructure manager HZ Infrastruktura plans to invest EUR 2 Billion in the national section of Corridor X by 2020 to align it to European standards. By the end of 2020, the Croatian section of Corridor X will be modernised to permit the traffic of trains at speeds of up to 160 km/h, will be fully doubled and fitted with GSM-R technology.
Some sections have already been moder-nised, other sections are under modernisation and others are in the design phase and could be included in the applications for EU funds in 2015. In the past ten years, major investments have been carried out in the improvement and modernisation of the railway infrastructure, so that there are railway sections on which the traffic speed is 120 km/h up to 160 km/h on sections such as Zagreb – Novska – Vinkovci. According to the World Bank report, 756 km of railway line have been upgraded in the past ten years. For 2013, the infrastructure manager plans to implement several projects regarding the reconstruction and modernisation of Zagreb-Sisak section, part of the Turopolje-Velika Gorica line, Sisak-Petrinja and Sisak-Caprag-Novska. Moreover, the company will launch projects for the reconstruction of the railway tunnels in the Sisak region in 2014.
Zagreb public transport: light rail or metro?
Winner of the European Mobility Week Award in 2012, the city of Zagreb plans to reduce the use of individual vehicles by developing a more efficient and more attractive public transport system for its citizens. Moreover, the support of cycling is one of the measures aimed to improve mobility in the Croatian capital.
The over 800,000 people living in the city and the many tourists visiting the capital will enjoy the measures aimed to reduce traffic congestion and to improve the services such as accessibility to the public transport system. The authorities have decided to adopt more eco-friendly means of transport, to integrate the railway transport system into the public transport system, but also to reduce the impact of the company’s vehicles on the environment.
Currently, Zagreb transport system relies on a mix of public transport vehicles and individual cars. Urban transport has 19 tram lines (four of which are dedicated to night transport), 120 bus routes, both systems being managed by Zagrebački električni tramvaj (ZET). Croatian Railways manages the commuter railway transport system providing connection to the suburbs of the capital.
Different electoral campaigns of the candidates to head of the city have often announced projects for the construction of a second rail transport system in the city, more precisely the construction of an underground line. This mode of transport is aimed to complete the tram transport system and the rail commuter system. The authorities have often mentioned the idea of building a light rail system (rapid tram) instead of an underground metro system, but both variants have so far been abandoned because of lack of funds.
Various studies have emphasized the necessity to build a light rail line instead of an underground metro system, because the former would be less expensive.
The construction of an underground system will cost twice as much as a light rail. Experts have pro and against arguments. A metro system could carry 70,000 passengers an hour, while a light rail system could only carry 24,000 passengers per hour. However, experts estimated a maximum volume of 7,000 passengers per hour for 2020, consi-
dering the fact that Zagreb population doesn’t exceed 1 million people. Therefore, it seems that odds are for the light rail system. According to the municipality’s plans, four or five light rail lines could be built in Zagreb. They will have a total length of 25 km in the underground and 55 at surface. The cost of the entire project was estimated at EUR 5.5 Billion and necessary works could expand up to 20 years.
Share on:
