Product Code Database
Serbian Railways (separator=" / "; abbr. ЖС / italics=no) is a Serbian engineering and technical consulting company based in Belgrade, Serbia.
In 2015, the Government of Serbia established three new companies which took over Serbian Railways' former jurisdictions: Srbijavoz (passenger transport), Srbija Kargo (cargo transport) and Serbian Railways Infrastructure (infrastructure management). These companies are not part of the company Serbian Railways.
Since then, Serbian Railways continued with modified business activity: engineering and technical consulting, consulting activities in the field of information technology and other information technology services, buying and selling real estate, rental and management activities, accounting, bookkeeping and auditing activities, tax advisory services, technical testing and analysis, rental and leasing of other machinery, equipment of non-material goods, activities of the museums, galleries and collections.
Serbia is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Serbia is 72.
Serbian Railways as a company is traced back to 1881 when Prince Milan I declared formation of the Serbian National Railways. The first train departed from Belgrade to Niš on 23 August 1884, which is considered by Serbian Railways as the official year when the company was created.
This was not the first operational railway on the territory of then-Kingdom of Serbia, though, as the one in opened in 1882, a primarily industrial, though occasionally used for passenger transport, long wide gauge track from Majdanpek copper processing plant to Velike Livade (a former village taken over by the plant) and constructed by the Serbian Copper & Iron Co. (official name in English, most stockholders were British) had its first run on the track in June 1882. Reference in Serbian
Another one in Eastern Serbia followed suit in 1888, the long dual purpose (industrial and passenger transport) track from Vrashka Chuka mine to the port of Radujevac on the Danube, built by the Societé Anonyme "L'Industrielle Serbe" registered at Brussels in Belgian, French, (Austro-)Hungarian, and Serbian ownership (in order of the percentage of stock owned). Reference in Serbian Reference in Serbian with a French introduction and abstract
From the 1920s until the 1990s, it operated under the name Yugoslav Railways, responsible for railways in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The first electrified line was opened between Belgrade and Šid in 1970. The line connecting Serbia with south Adriatic (Belgrade-Bar) was opened in 1976.
In 2013, Serbian Railways signed a contract with RZD International, worth USD840 million, aimed at modernization of aging infrastructure by focusing on improving key sections of main railway lines. The section between Ruma and Golubinci on Belgrade-Šid line was reconstructed in 2014 and additional five sections on Belgrade-Niš-Preševo line (Sopot-Kosmajski Kovačevac, Mala Krsna-Velika Plana, Vinarce-Đorđevo, Vranjska Banja-Ristovac, and Bujanovac-Bukarevac) were modernized and revitalized in 2015 and 2016, while the section between Belgrade and Pančevo on Belgrade-Vršac line saw doubling tracks along with the reconstruction.
Those three companies, fully separated and independent from the Serbian Railways were founded on 10 August 2015, in the process of reconstruction and better optimization of business. In the process, around 6,000 employees left the company with severance payments, which amounts to 39 million euros, by the end of 2017, thus cutting total number of employees from 17,635 in 2016 to around 11,500 in 2018, in all four rail related companies combined. From 2018 to 2020, in the third wave of dismissals, another 1,500 employees are planned to leave the company, cutting the total number of employees to around 10,000 by 2020. That would be 7,635 less employees (43.29%) than in 2016, and 22,800 less (69.51%) than in 2000.
The Serbian railway system consists of of rails of which is double track (7.9% of the network). Some of track (33.6% of the network) is electrified. Serbia has rail links with all of adjacent countries, except Albania.
| 1 | Belgrade – Ruma – Border with Croatia near Šid | 120 km | 2 | yes | It is shared track between Belgrade and Stara Pazova with Railway line 4. |
| 2 | Belgrade – Niš – Border with North Macedonia near Preševo | 398 km | 1/2 | yes | Two tracks are between Velika Plana and Stalać as well as between Đunis and Niš. Modernization and reconstruction is planned to start in 2023 up to high-speed rail of maximum 200 km/h between Belgrade and Niš. |
| 3 | Belgrade – Mala Krsna – Velika Plana | 102 km | 1 | yes | |
| 4 | Belgrade – Novi Sad – Border with Hungary near Subotica | 183 km | 2 | yes | High-speed (200 km/h) rail is opened between Belgrade and Novi Sad since 19.03.2022. Double tracking and upgrade to high-speed of 200 km/h is currently in progress from Novi Sad to Subotica (border with Hungary). |
| 5 | Niš – Pirot – Border with Bulgaria near Dimitrovgrad | 104 km | 1 | no | Reconstruction, electrification and modernization started in November 2023 and will last next tree and a half years for the maximum speed of 120 km/h. |
| 6 | Belgrade – Pančevo – Border with Romania near Vršac | 102 km | 1/2 | partially | There are 2 tracks that are electrified between Belgrade and Pančevo. |
| 7 | Belgrade – Valjevo – Užice – Border with Montenegro near Prijepolje | 299 km | 1 | yes | |
| 8 | Lapovo – Kragujevac – Kraljevo – Administrative line with Kosovo & Metohija near Rudnica | 153 km | 1 | no | |
| 9 | Subotica – Sombor – Border with Croatia near Bogojevo | 87 km | 1 | no |
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