Balkan railways - Railway companies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republic of Srpska in Railway Alliance

- The railway companies of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska are going to join the Railway Alliance project and joint venture Cargo 10, formed by the railway companies of Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia - Banja Luka's daily paper Nezavisne Novine wrote today.

The newspaper says that today's meeting in Zagreb, which should be attended by the representatives of the railway companies of Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Srpska, will be the occasion for talks about intensification of activities related to Railway Alliance and the possibility of inclusion of Montenegro and Macedonia, as well as about preparations for registration of Cargo 10.

- It is expected that the first train of this joint venture will leave the station in Ljubljana on October 1st - it is stated in the text and added that the company whose headquarters is in Ljubljana will first be working only on the transport of goods.

According to that paper, there is a possibility of introduction of passenger traffic between the countries of former Yugoslavia later.

People at the Railways of Republic of Srpska have confirmed that they will attend the meeting, while people at the Railways of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina claim that they will not attend it because they have not been invited, but they support the idea of cooperation and joint appearance in European transport market.

- In a way, it is our salvation because the railway companies in our region have separated from the others and, thus, lost jobs since they have become inactive - said Dusan Spremo, the Executive Director of Operations of the Railways of the Republic of Srpska.

He explained that the role of the railway companies of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska would be to transport goods on pan-European Corridor 10, which was going through Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia, and that they would use the system of Railway Alliance to get transport and take over the load.

- In that way we will rescue our operators from the arrival of companies from Austria, Germany and France because there is no other way for us to resist them since they have much bigger and more modern capacities - said Spremo.

Nijaz Puzic, the Executive Director for operations of the railway operator of the Railways of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that they had not been invited to the meeting meeting in Zagreb, but that they were definitely interested in joint collaboration because it was the only way for them to enter new markets and be more competitive in them.