Croatia’s Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, and the CEO of HŽ Infrastruktura, Ivan Kršić, marked officially the completion of Vinkovci – Vukovar rail modernisation and electrification in a ceremony held at Vukovar City Museum.
The EUR 61 million project included the modernisation of the 18.7 km rail line and the reconstruction of Vukovar – Borovo Naselje and Vukovar stations, the reconstruction of all stops and the modernisation of rail crossings.
“The modernisation of the line, as well as other projects that we are preparing and implementing on the RH1 corridor, from the border with Slovenia to the border with Serbia, are important not only for the cities of Vukovar and Vinkovci, the port of Vukovar, but also for the development of the entire Vukovar-Srijem County and the eastern part of Croatia. There is almost no kilometre of line on the Croatian railway infrastructure network that is not in some phase of renovation such as preparation of documentation, tendering for works or carrying out the works. In the next ten years we plan to invest almost EUR 6 billion in the rehabilitation and modernisation of the railway infrastructure, thus renovating and modernising a total of almost 1000 km of line. This is also the largest investment cycle in railway infrastructure in the history of the Republic of Croatia,” Ivan Kršić said.
The project has been co-financed by the European Union through the financial agreement signed in 2018 under the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion (OPCC) 2024-2020. The value of the grant agreement is EUR 89.9 million, and the total eligible costs amount to EUR 68.5 million. The maximum amount for the co-financing of eligible costs of the project is EUR 64.4 million, of which EUR 54.7 million or 85% is co-financed from OPCC and the remaining amount of EUR 9.7 million or 15% is co-financed from the state budget.
“We are currently in a large investment cycle in transport infrastructure in general and, most importantly, since we have mainly built road, motorway, air and maritime infrastructure, we are in the midst of a large investment cycle in railway infrastructure. In addition to this completed project, one of the largest railway projects in Croatia, we also opened the renovated railway at the entrance to the City of Zagreb, before that the Krapina – Zabok section. In addition to European funds, we will also have an EIB loan worth a total of EUR 900 million at our disposal, which will mainly be used for the renovation of local and regional railways and we already have a lot of open sections. We have a lot of work ahead of us until we rebuild the entire railway infrastructure, and in parallel with that we are also purchasing new trains. 21 trains have been purchased from European funds, and two new battery trains are coming, so in parallel with the construction of infrastructure, we also have a large cycle of purchasing new trains,” the minister said.
The project has been carried out by a joint venture comprising Comsa and Comsa Instalaciones y Sistemas Industriales under a EUR 49.9 million contract signed in December 2019. The supervision service for the project was performed by the joint venture of Rubicon Engineering and SPC Engineering under a EUR 1.7 million contract awarded in march 2019.
The modernisation of this railway line is of great importance for the economic development of the local community and the wider region of Vinkovci and Vukovar, Eastern Slavonia, but also for its better and higher-quality transport connections to the European railway system. In the broader context of part of Europe, it is significant because it is an integral part of the RFC10 railway freight corridor, located on the Rhine-Danube Corridor, and Eastern Slavonia will be well-connected with the RH1 Corridor through this modernisation.
The electrification of the section ensures economically and energetically more profitable and ecologically sustainable railway transport while the capacity of the section has been increased and access to the port of Vukovar is improved, which contributes to the economic development of the local community and the recovery of the eastern part of Slavonia.
“I know that the modernised 19 km of railway is important for this region, for the economic development of Vukovar and Vinkovci, the Port of Vukovar, and the entire County of Eastern Slavonia. This project connects two large cities, local administrative units, and I look forward to future projects, in addition to those already underway,” the State Secretary at the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, Kristina Bilić, said.
Following the rehabilitation of Vinkovci – Vukovar rail line, trains are able to run at 120 km/h.
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