Zadar-Knin railway being revived and a tram for Zadar
- by croatiaweek
- in Business
Zadar
After 10 years of decline, the Zadar-Knin railway is being restored.
Trains will run again, the railway station will be relocated from the Zadar city centre to the Gaženica port, and the port and the centre will be connected by tram and electric boats.
For more than 40 years, Kuzma Lepur was the station manager in the Ravni kotari region. Those were the golden times of the Zadar-Knin railway, which has seen no trains for the past 10 years. The announced restoration brings joy, but, as he tells HRT, there are still fears as a number of businesses have vanished over the years.
“I fear there won’t be as much traffic because there’s no INA, no Kepol, no Polikem, no Sojara, no Wood Export, no Port, no Tobacco Factory, no Otočanka, no Elka, no Adria, no Boris Kidrič, no Jugoplastika, no SAS,” the retired station manager of the Benkovac Railway Station told HRT.
However, with the renewed railway, conditions are being set for production and revitalised economy.
“This project is financed by a loan from the European Investment Bank, the second part will be financed by European funds, and there are plans for the renovation of stations on this stretch and eventually the acquisition of modern passenger trains,” says Josip Bilaver, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure.
The railway’s load capacity will be raised to 22 and a half tons, and 22 tunnels will be renovated. In the next phase of the project, the railway will be relocated from Bibinje and Sukošan. All types of traffic will intersect at the Gaženica port, where a new railway station for Zadar will be located. Zadar will also get a tram.
Knin (Photo credit: Rprpr/CC BY-SA 4.0)
“Architect Pero Marušić has made a proposal, a study to connect Gaženica itself with the city centre as a substitute, after relocating the station to Gaženica,” emphasizes Darko Kasap, Head of the Department of Spatial Planning and Construction of the City of Zadar.
Kasap adds that road traffic will be relieved with new lines of electric boats stopping at municipal docks. Citizens have eagerly awaited the railway’s restoration.
“I have a five-year-old child who has long wanted to travel by train. I’m looking where to take her, where’s the closest place we could catch a train, that means Šibenik, Split, there’s nothing here from Zadar,” says Ana.
