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Traveling by train from Belgrade to Budapest will soon become faster than ever, as the citizens of Serbia will be able to enjoy a comfortable and quick journey thanks to the new high-speed railway. This modern railway, eagerly awaited for decades, offers the possibility of covering this distance in just three hours, providing passengers with an unforgettable experience.
At the Bačka Topola railway station, with the installation of the last section of the tracks, the main line of the high-speed railway connecting Novi Sad and Budapest has been completed. The Novi Sad – Subotica section, 108 kilometers long, will be open for traffic in December this year, reducing the travel time between Belgrade and the Hungarian border to just 75 minutes.
Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure, Goran Vesić, stated that the completion of the high-speed railway between Novi Sad and Subotica will significantly reduce travel time to the Hungarian border. According to plans, the journey between Belgrade and the Hungarian border will take 75 minutes, while the section between Novi Sad and Subotica will be covered in 42 minutes, with test rides expected by the end of September.
Deputy General Manager of “China State Railway Group CO,” Wang Tongjun, emphasized that the railway is already being tested at speeds of 200 kilometers per hour on the section between Novi Sad and Vrbas. This project plays a key role in the Chinese “Belt and Road” initiative, which aims to connect the Greek port of Piraeus with the European Union. The previous section, connecting Belgrade and Novi Sad, opened two years ago, has already significantly contributed to the development of northern Serbia.
The construction of the Belgrade – Budapest high-speed railway is currently the largest infrastructure project in Southeastern Europe, with a total value of around 4 billion euros, of which Serbia has invested about 2 billion euros. The project includes the construction of nine railway stations (Novi Sad, Sajlovo, Kisač, Stepanovićevo, Zmajevo, Bačka Topola, Žednik, Naumovićevo, and Subotica) and three new stations with additional capacities (Rumenka, Vrbas, and Lovćenac). Construction works on the Naumovićevo-Subotica section are in the final stages, while on the rest of the route, works are being carried out on the construction of underpasses, overpasses, and other structures.
On the section between Novi Sad and Subotica, 49 structures have been built, including underpasses and overpasses, with the largest structure being the viaduct in Vrbas, 1.6 kilometers long. The railway is designed and built to the highest European standards, with no level crossings. During the construction, Chinese railways employed more than 2,000 local experts and used over 400 specialized machines.
According to plans, work on the high-speed railway from Belgrade to Niš, 230 kilometers long, is expected to begin at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. This part of the project will be carried out in phases to minimize the impact on existing traffic, applying an approach similar to that on the Niš-Dimitrovgrad railway.
As part of a broader plan to develop the railway network, the project connecting Budapest with Athens will also be realized, covering a route 1,512 kilometers long through Hungary, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Greece. The first section between Belgrade and Novi Sad, which opened in March 2022, is just the beginning of this ambitious infrastructure network.
