A direct link established by ÖBB Rail Cargo Group (RCG) between Belgrade and Rijeka will link the Serbian rail network to the Adriatic.
The new connection will allow goods coming into the Adriatic Gate Container Terminal (AGCT) in Rijeka, Croatia, to move directly onto the Serbian railway network.
AGCT is Croatia’s largest harbour and handles more than 70 per cent of freight transport into and out of Serbia.
The latest TransFER route joins similar connections opened by the Rail Cargo Group recently, including the link between Krusevac–Budapest–Duisburg, which provides direct freight services from the Serbian manufacturing centre, through Hungary and into Germany.
TransFER Belgrade–Rijeka uses the RCG’s own locomotives and rolling stock.
With a capacity of 76 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) per train, each carrying containers ranging from 20- to 45- feet, TransFER Belgrade–Rijeka aims to support Serbia’s growing economy by providing regular and quicker transport of goods to and from the country.
Carrying such a significant amount of freight by rail will also produce far fewer CO2 emissions than if it was transported by road.
There will be one to two round trips between Belgrade and Rijeka each week, with journeys taking up to 24 hours.
Part of ÖBB, the Austrian railway operator, the RCG has been developing its activity in Serbia in recent years.
It set up a carrier company in Belgrade in 2023 and has established a partnership with a major Western Balkan shipping organisation, Transfera d.o.o, in 2024 to create a railway shipping company.
Every year, the RCG moves more than 78 million net tonnes of freight across Europe and further afield into Asia, carried on 419,000 trains.
TransFER Belgrade–Rijeka is, therefore, the latest part of a huge, continent-wide network.
Responses
They have been talking about this route for the last ten years and it only got built due to EU funding, if we stopped in the EU we could have had the same funding.
Since we always paid more into the EU than we ever got out of it, even if the EU had funded our railway lines there would have been no net gain for us. Serbia is quite different and is a net recipient of EU funds – so if we’d remained in the EU we would have contributed to this rail link!
Funding for HS2 & HS3 was being talked about. The Adriatic Line was presented bluntly to the EU ‘You Pay Us and We Will Build It’ .I was at the seminar and you could sense the greed in there presentation.
A map of the route would have been a useful addition to this article
….. and we can’t get a new line from Birmingham to Crewe because our parliamentary windbags have a/ no guts and b/ created so many legislatory impediments.