The first rail border crossing Bulgaria and North Macedonia will be ready by 2030, according to Sofia’s minister of transport. The line would be a 2.4-kilometre tunnel under the Deve Bair mountain, but questions remain about the rest of the North Macedonian rail network.
Both Parliaments recently ratified the agreement signed by the respective ministers of transport in October. “The next stage is the establishment of a Joint Committee (…) which will coordinate the preparation, construction and future operation of the facility”, the Bulgarian ministry said in a note. The construction of the tunnel should cost somewhere around 69 million euros.
2028 or 2030?
On the one hand, Bulgaria had been working on upgrading the Sofia-Gyueshevo line, connecting its capital to the border with North Macedonia. The tunnel on the Bulgarian side will start here. “By the end of 2028, a Bulgarian train will reach Deve Bair,” the Bulgarian minister said last June.
On the other hand, it seems that we will have to wait an additional couple of years to see trains actually crossing the mountain. “By 2030, Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia will complete the construction of the railway connection between the two countries”, the minister said a few days ago.
The road to Corridor VIII
The main issue is the network in North Macedonia. Currently, there is no line in the north-west of the country, which means that the tunnel under the Deve Bair is not the only piece of infrastructure that will have to be built from scratch. The idea is to create a line between Kriva Palanka (at the feet of the Deve Bair mountain) and Kumanovo, not far from the Serbian border. From there, the network connects to the capital Skopje.
Opening a railway line between Bulgaria and North Macedonia is a key step in the development of the so-called Corridor VIII, connecting the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. However, North Macedonia needs significant efforts. The lack of a line going into Bulgaria is not the only problem for Skopje. The country is also missing a westward connection to Albania, for which there does not even seem to be a plan.
