The European Investment Bank approved, on May 14, a EUR 250 million financing for Divača – Koper project, which has a total estimated cost of EUR 1.2 billion. It is envisaging the construction of a 27-km double-track line, which will increase rail capacity between the port of Koper and the rail junction in Divaca.
“This is a great news for Slovenia. In the last eight months, we approved the investment programme, the concession agreement and we have signed the previous concession contract agreement on the project,” Alenka Bratušek, the Minister of Infrastructure said.
For this project, INEA provided, in June 2018, a EUR 109 million grant under the 2017 CEF Transport Blending call for proposals, which will mobilise a total of EUR 436.1 million in public and private co-funding. Slovenia will invest EUR 522 million in case the project will not involve the cooperation of other countries. In case of other countries’ involvement, the EUR 200 million contribution to the 2TDK is planned for 2021 and 2022.
By 2026, EUR 122 million will come from the funds collected by adding a toll on freight vehicles, and the same funding volume will be provided to 2TDK, which is responsible for the implementation of the project. The remaining needed funds will be covered by loans from international financial institutions. EUR 6 million will be covered by increased TACs collected from operators who use Slovenian railway network.
At the beginning of this year, the Slovenian Government approved the project’s investment programme, which underlines that the construction works will be completed in 2025, with commercial operation to start in 2026, following intensive tests.
This April, the government issued a decree stipulating the details on the concession contract with the state-owned TDK2 company.
The Slovenian Government has issued a Decree which will serve as the basis of Divača – Koper concession contract with the state-owned TDK2 company. Under the regulation, the concession contract will be awarded for 45 years.
The new double-track line will cut the distance between Divača and Koper by 17.3 km, from 44.3 km to 27 km, resulting in considerable reduction of travel times from 43-48 to 15-21 minutes.
Freight trains will run with speeds of 100 km/h, and passenger trains, 160 km/h, the number of trains being estimated to increase from currently 90 trains to 220 trains per day.
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