"Eurofima" approved loan in amount of 37m EUR to company "Serbian Railways" for modernization of motor pool

Public Company "Serbian Railways" plans procurement of few hundreds of new freight cars, whch will improve freight transportation that brings about 85% of incomes to this company.

People from that company point out that international railway bank "Eurofima" approved the loan to them in amount of 37m EUR for modernization of the means of transportation. "Eurofima's" loan should be available in the first half of this year and it will enable procurement of so-called multisystem locomotives that are now absent from our railways.

Expert public has been pointing for years to the fact that "Serbian Railways" required emergency modernization. How bad the situation in "Serbian Railways" is can be best deduced from the information that, in the 1970's, the train from Belgrade to Niš travelled 3h and 11 min, whereas today, according to the timetable, it takes the train more than four hours to travel that distance. People from "Serbian Railways" point out that the modernization requires big money.

- In order to achieve European quality of transportation, Serbian Railways requires about 3 billion EUR. For complete modernization of railway transportation in Serbia, which would include electrification of all significant routes, construction of two-gage railway tracks wherever needed and procurement of necessary number of new locomotives and cars, we need about about 10 billion EUR. That is the investment that should be ralized in the following 15-20 years. About 15m RSD is needed only for construction of one railway crossing and, without the help from the government and local self-government, we are unable to put that in realization - said people from "Serbian Railways".