Rail freight transport to move out of downtown Belgrade to Makis

(Photo: Ivana Vuksa)

The first IRT freight train will start operating at the railway station Beograd Ranzirna in Makis at the beginning of next week, stated the general manager of Serbian Railways Miroslav Stojcic.

The departure of the last freight train for Rijeka on June 9 marked the official closing down of the railway station Beograd Spoljna, which was a part of the Belgrade Main Railway Station and which was meant for the rail freight transport. Just a day earlier, on June 8, the Joint Stock Company for Freight Railway Transport Srbija Kargo imposed the so-called “traffic restrictions” based on which the station Beograd Spoljna stopped picking up and dispatching freight trains.

In this way, after nearly a century of existence, the station Beograd Spoljna stopped serving the rail freight transport in downtown Belgrade.

It the past decades, millions of tons of goods were picked up and dispatched from this station, and due to its significance and the amount of traffic, it was in this station that a large number of railroaders gained their initial professional education and experience invaluable to their continued work on the railway.

In accordance with the plans of the Institute of Transportation CIP, only three of the existing 19 rails of Beograd Spoljna will remain operational for the needs of the rail freight transport in the routes Beograd Dunav – Beograd Peron (Belgrade Main railway station) – Topcider and Beograd Dunav – Beograd Peron – Novi Beograd.

In the past fifteen days the workers of the Serbian Railways Infrastructure have dismantled around a kilometer and a half of the tracks and three switches at the station Beograd Spoljna.