The last part of the track on the Novi Sad – Subotica railway line was connected today in Bačka Topola, thus completing the installation of new rails on the main section. This railway should be put into traffic in December, after several years of delay.
The length of the railway line from Novi Sad to the Hungarian border is 108 kilometers, and the value of the works is one billion and 160 million dollars.
The Chinese consortium carrying out this capital project is already testing the railway at speeds of 200 kilometers per hour on the section from Novi Sad to Vrbas, and it is expected that test runs from Novi Sad to Subotica will begin in mid-September.
Regular high-speed train rides from Belgrade to Subotica, which should last 75 minutes, are expected in December this year.
Announcement of the announced
Although the high-speed railway on the Belgrade-Budapest route has been announced since 2014, work officially began only at the end of November 2017, namely on the Belgrade-Stara Pazova section with a length of 34.5 kilometers.
Even before the works started, in 2015, the then Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said: “We have to open the Belgrade-Budapest railway by 2018.”
That deadline has been postponed from year to year, and it is not yet known when the train will reach the Hungarian capital, because on the other side of the border, work has been stopped due to the alleged inability of Chinese contractors to build a system according to European safety standards. Vučić said that the Hungarians could finish their part by 2026.
