Every year on September 3/15, Serbian Railways (Zeleznice Srbije) celebrates the Rail Worker Day. The symbolism of this date is represented by the launch in 1884 of the regulated services on the first railway line in independent Serbia, Belgrade-Niş. The first train to run on this line was the ceremonial train of king Milan I which run on August 23, 1884.
The first railway lines date back from the period when Serbia was part of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire. A first important date in the ZS history is August 20, 1854, when the first railway line in Serbia was put into operation. The Lisava-Oraviţa-Baziaş line was served by horse-driven carriages, the first steam locomotives being introduced in 1856. The first railway transport operator was establish on July 3, 1881,when Duke Milan Obrenovic symbolically drove a silver nail in the railway bridge across Mokri Lug River, presently near Gazela Bridge in Belgrade.
The firs line should have been built by a French company, General Union in Paris, but the company went bankrupt and works were carried out by the Association for Constructions and Operations of the State Railways, the former name of Zeleznice Srbije.
Since 1920 and until the separation of former Yugoslavia, with short interruptions, Serbian Railways has operated as Jugoslovenske Zeleznice (JZ) and has been integrated to the Yugoslavian network. The first electrified line in Serbia was Belgrade-Sid, whose installations were inaugurated in 1970. Today, 32% of the network is electrified.
One of the most impressing line in Serbia was the one crossing Mokra Gora Valley on the Belgrade-Dubrovnik artery, a line mentioned in the works of great Serbian writers and producers. This is the line crossed by Cira train which carried all categories of people, from bankers to mere traders, offering a wonderful view of Tara, Zlatibor and Sargan Mountains. The last Cira train run on February 28, 1974, the 13.5-km long line, called Sargan Opt and which connected Sargan Vitasi and Mokra Gora being closed for 50 years. The line had been inaugurated as a great engineering accomplishment of the time. In 1999, ZS reopened the line which now carries tourists in belle-epoque trains.
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