English
The Railway Gazette site, specializing in covering news from the railway industry, published an article on the opening of the Kumanovo – Beljakovce section of the long awaited track toward Bulgaria.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski has inaugurated the first section of a future rail route between Skopje and Sofia which is being developed as part of pan-European Corridor VIII to link the Adriatic and the Black seas. The section of line inaugurated on January 17 starts at Kumanovo on the Corridor X main line between Skopje and Beograd and runs 30·8 km to Beljakovce. It includes three large and six small stations, five bridges and one tunnel. It originally opened 1956, but traffic stopped in 1994 because of the poor state of the infrastructure. Domestic companies were appointed to rehabilitate the line the same year, but this work made little progress and the lots were later re-tendered. Strabag was awarded a €40m contract in 2022, Railway Gazette reports.
The site notes that “the €78m rehabilitation project was financed by the national government, European Union and international institutions including the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development”. It quotes Matej Zakonjšek, Director of the Permanent Secretariat of Transport Community, as saying that “the reopening of the section is an important step towards strengthening sustainable transport and regional connectivity”. Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski is quoted saying that “the line will initially operate with services running two to three times per week. We believe there is significant room for improvement in fleet capacity, which would help unlock the line’s full potential”.
