“Regular freight traffic started at dawn today (27 February) on the Budapest-Belgrade railway line”, said the CEO of Hungarian state-owned operator MÁV-csoport Hegyi Zsolt. The Hungarian and Serbian capitals are now officially linked by a modern railway infrastructure expected to significantly benefit rail freight.
The project was largely financed by Chinese entities, especially the Chinese Export-Import Bank. When it comes to rail freight, one of the main beneficiaries will be the Greek port of Piraeus, where Cosco is the majority shareholder. So far, three pairs of freight trains have been scheduled to run along the new Budapest-Belgrade railway, according to Serbian media citing the Hungarian ministry of transport.
The history of the project
Hungary considered the construction of a new line between Budapest and Kelebia, on the border with Serbia, as one whole project, which started in October 2021. Serbia, on the other hand, divided the new line between Belgrade and Subotica into sections. The renovation of the stretch between the capital and Novi Sad started in 2017 and was completed in 2022. For the Novi Sad-Subotica section leading into Hungary, construction started in November 2021.
The total investment for the Budapest-Belgrade new line should be around four billion euros, but it is difficult to have an exact figure. For the two Serbian sections (Belgrade-Novi Sad and Novi Sad-Subotica), contracts for more than 900 million euros each were awarded to a Chinese consortium formed by China Railway International and China Communications Construction Company. For the Hungarian part, the cost should revolve around two billion euros and was built by a Chinese-Hungarian consortium..
A curious request
Passenger traffic is expected to begin in a couple of weeks on 15 March. In his LinkedIn post, Zsolt had a somewhat peculiar requests for drivers who will find themselves crossing the railway. “For a long time, people living in the region could get used to the fact that there are no trains running on the tracks”, (…) We ask everyone not to drive out of habit: to approach railway crossings in full compliance with the traffic rules and with due care”, he stressed.