Srbija Voz eyes 20 mln passengers in 2027 - report

Srbija Voz is expecting the arrival of 18 Swiss-made and 5 Chinese trains that will raise the standard of its fleet to the highest level, the company's director general, Ivan Bulajic told news agency Tanjug on Friday.

He said that the 18 Stadler FLIRT passenger trainsets cost 112 million euro ($121 million) and are purchased via a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. They will be very soon added to Srbija Voz's current fleet of 21 electric trains for regional traffic.

The Chinese trains, capable of operating at speed of up to 200 km per hour, will be produced by the end of 2024 and the exact time of their arrival in Serbia is not clear yet, Bulajic said.

Srbija Voz transported 7.1 million passengers in 2023, compared with 2.6 million in 2021, thanks to the launch of the 75-km high-speed railway line linking Belgrade and Novi Sad in March 2022, he noted, adding that almost 7 million passengers were transported on the Belgrade-Novi Sad route in the two years since its launch.

Moreover, Serbia expects to complete by the end of September the overhaul the 108-km Novi Sad-Subotica section of the railway line linking Belgrade to Hungary's Budapest, which will help further boost the number of railway users in the country.

In February, transport minister Goran Vesic said that Serbia plans to launch the overhaul of some 2,000 kilometres of regional railways this year, adding that once the process is completed, the whole railway network in the country will be revamped.

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