City of Belgrade to procure trams and railway cars – 13m EUR for city railways in 2009

- The city of Belgrade will set aside about 13m EUR for refurbishment of railway crossings and tracks in 2009 in order to put city railways into operation – said Mayor Dragan Đilas yesterday (November 19, 2008). He pointed out that CIP Institute had finished the study and, according to that study, the city train could operate every 15 to 20 minutes.

– All major cities in the world have city railways, while we have a network of railways that passes unused through the city. If we manage to refurbish railways next year and purchase several new trains, we can use this system to transport huge number of people –Đilas pointed out.

The city railways are currently a part of "Serbian Railways". The last time the city invested money in “Beovoz” was four years ago. Since that time, there have been several misunderstandings between Belgrade and “Railways”. “Serbian Railways” asked the city to set aside 250m RSD from the budget for "Beovoz" in 2006, which was not accepted by the city authorities at that time.

Speaking of the introduction of subway in Belgrade, the Mayor pointed out that the city would invite people from European metropolises that have the developed subway systems in order to recommend the best concept for Belgrade to the city authorities.

Đilas said that the city traffic would be improved the next year thanks to procurement of certain number of new and overhaul of existing trams, which was also announced earlier. Thus, 60 railway cars will be overhauled and the funds will be provided from the budget of City Transportation Company "Beograd".

– We calculated that it is significantly cheaper for us to buy new trams than to announce new open competition for overhaul of 60 existing trams since the previous tender was unsuccessful. Therefore, we will, most probably, buy certain number of railway cars once we receive the funds of the European Investment Bank, while the remaining trams of the City Transportation Company would be gradually repaired – said Radovan Drča, the Assistant to the Manager of the Investment Administration of the Finance Secretariat.

It is estimated that the Price of one tram, depending on the length and manufacturer, ranges between 1 and 3m EUR, while the average life of these vehicles ranges between 20 and 30 years. The experts who calculated that about 250m EUR should be invested in overhaul of trams are of the opinion that the refurbishment of rolling stock, which is expected to be finished prior to the end of year 2009, would reduce traffic jams.