Zagreb airport and city centre to be connected by train
- by croatiaweek
- in News
Plans to connect centre of Zagreb and airport with train (Photo: Zagreb Airport/CC BY-SA 4.0)
At the moment the centre of the Croatian capital Zagreb and the airport, located some 10 km south of the city in Velika Gorica, is not greatly connected by public transport.
Passengers who land at Zagreb Airport cannot reach the city centre by train, as in most other European cities. They currently have at their disposal a bus, a private transport, or a taxi.
Last week the government announced that plans have been put in place to build a railway from the airport to the city centre, replacing the earlier idea of a tram service between the two.
Along with travellers, residents of Velika Gorica are also looking forward to that, HRT reported.
“There is always talk only about connecting the airport and the city of Zagreb. We have always said that we should also think about Velika Gorica, the sixth largest city in Croatia, which should have a better rail connection with the city of Zagreb,” Mladen Nikšić, vice dean for operations at the Faculty of Transport in Zagreb told HRT.
Croatian Railways say it is still not known which route the train will take because the project is in the contracting phase. The first phase covers the connection of the airport with the main train station in the centre of Zagreb – a new railway connection, while the second phase envisages the development of other parts of the Zagreb railway junction.
“30 months are planned for the creation of the entire study documentation, whereby the first 10 months are planned for the creation of the first phase, and the remaining 20 months for the creation of the second phase of the study documentation.
As for the route of the new railway, it will also be defined as part of the preparation of the first phase of the study documentation. Several solutions with different routes connecting Zagreb Airport and the existing railway network will be considered and worked out.” Croatian Railways Corporate Communications told HRT.
Zagreb central train station (Photo credit: – J. Duval/Zagreb Tourist Board)
As soon as documentation is finished this year, money from EU funds will be requested. Money from the city of Zagreb, says the minister, will not be needed for the project.
“At the moment, I don’t know how much it costs because we don’t have any finished projects. This is now in a preparatory stage, i.e. project and study. As soon as it is finished, we will ask for EU funding and start implementing it. It will take a couple of years,” said Oleg Butković, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure.
