Prokop is the central element of the Belgrade railway station, which is an integral part of a comprehensive transport development that has been taking place since the 1970s. The purpose of this is to create a transitory nature of the Belgrade railway system by bringing the new railway bridge over the Sava River, a total of 14 kilometers of railway tunnels, and most of the railway facilities underground. However, it is important to note that the new central railway station of the Serbian capital has not yet been fully completed – writes Világgazdaság.
If we are looking for a Hungarian parallel, in terms of time, this project is the 4th subway of the Balkan country. Either way, Prokop can be an interesting example from the perspective of the future development of the Hungarian railway infrastructure. We are talking about a through station, which thus serves the trains in a completely different way than the big Hungarian head stations in Budapest. Currently, 300 trains pass through it every day, but next year, the construction of new tracks would follow, at least according to the plans.
According to the Serbian president, when can the Budapest-Belgrade railway line be completed?
At the handover, Vucic spoke not only about the station itself, but also about its importance.
He explained that the Serbs are currently working on the 108-kilometer-long Novi Sad-Szabadka line, where trains will be able to travel at a speed of up to 200 kilometers per hour.
This section will be completed by December 2024, from then the travel time to Subotica will be reduced to 1 hour and 15 minutes. But he also announced that the railway must be rebuilt in other parts of Vojvodina as well. He mentioned the Panchsov–Nagybecskerek–Nagykikinda and Zombor line as an example.
The speech given at the award ceremony can be viewed here:
The Serbian president says that
compared to the Újvidék-Szabadka line, which will be completed at the end of 2024, one and a half years at the latest, i.e. by the summer of 2026, “our Hungarian friends will complete their own railway section to Budapest”.
This means that the complete renovation of the Hungarian section of Budapest-Belgrade, line 150, may end by then. All of this would mean that it would be possible to cover the distance between the Serbian and Hungarian capitals in 2 hours and 40 minutes. And that’s not all, because Vucic also talks about the fact that by then the Budapest-Vienna train journey will only take 2 hours, which means that it would take less than 5 hours to get from Belgrade to the Austrian capital on a fixed track.
How is the construction of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line currently doing?
Completion of the Hungarian section of the line is forecast for 2025. The press release of the Serbian president is largely in line with this, but at the same time, he has already possibly postponed the final date to the middle of 2026. However, for some time now, the fact that the project has become impossible has been firmly in the public discourse.
However, contrary to the rumors, there was also positive confirmation of the importance of the development.
The further details are a In his article World Economy can be read.
