Blic TV cameras recorded everything

Not far from the city center, pedestrians who want to reach the sports center of Rakovica and the football field have been jumping and running over the railroad tracks for decades! Many of them are the youngest who go to training this way. There are several other crossings, but they are not ideal either, citizens say, while experts claim – the ideal option is to build a footbridge. However, the Belgrade Construction Directorate has not yet reached that stage. And just as our TV crew was making the report, exactly what we were talking about was happening – citizens running and jumping over the tracks while the train was going by at full speed!

Only 3 kilometers from the city center – to cross the railway – means to jump over it and run across, after the train has passed and until the next one arrives. Because there is no alternative, say the pedestrians.

“This is the only transition. Everyone crosses this part over the railway line and it is very risky. It is very unsafe, because there is an overpass here, but only for cars, and a large number of children, go to school here or have friends there, so they have to cross the railway and so they cross the railway and run over it very risky. I’m crossing the tracks here, but it would be nicer if they built a footbridge, something for us to cross without the risk of being hit by a train. “Unfortunately, last year alone, I think we had two or three deaths,” say citizens.

Look left, look right. Thus, for years, pedestrians have been reaching the Rakovica sports center from the bus station and parking lot on Patrijarha Dimitrija boulevard. Another option is via the overpass, but as they say, that crossing is also not safe, because cars barely pass each other there. Experts say the only solution is a footbridge.

– Classic footbridges with classic staircases showed insufficient quality to meet the needs of users, they use them less often, so some of the modern solutions should be used. Especially since we have the advantage of the ground where we have one side, therefore, a road in a ravine, and even a part of the terrain above the road level, so it is easier to build a modern footbridge and adapt it to the terrain – inclines, slopes, ramps – says Nenad Marković from the Faculty of Traffic in Belgrade.

The Infrastructure of “Serbian Railways” says that the Belgrade Construction Directorate has already approached them and that they were looking for a solution for the first phase – from the Ada Bridge to the beginning of Pere Velimirovića Street.

– We are still expecting that phase two from Pere Velimirovića Street to the Rakovica railway station and we are waiting for some way to come up with a perhaps better solution and perhaps a safer solution. One of those solutions is the construction of that footbridge, however, there are other solutions, that is, for example, to reconstruct the existing road overpass that is in operation and is used not far from the sports center, is being renovated, then let’s say that overpass is built completely new instead, let’s say what our position was that the road crossing near the Blue Train garage needs to be abolished, these are all solutions – says Nenad Stanisavljević from “Serbian Railways” Infrastructure.

A few hundred meters further there are three crossing possibilities

They remind that in a few hundred meters there are as many as three possibilities of crossing the railway – a road overpass that crosses not far from the sports center in Rakovica, the railway station Rakovica, as well as the garage of the Blue Train, appeal to observe the regulations and to cross the railway exclusively and only where it is allowed until a final solution is reached.

By the way, while the reporters of “Blic” TV were recording the report, citizens could be seen crossing the tracks immediately after the train passed by, which you can see in the video below!