Hoofhearted
Member
For the last couple of weeks my son and I have been touring Italy, with a brief visit to Albania. The railways (or lack of) in Albania have always fascinated us, so we headed off to the city of Durres to see if we could get some photos of their dilapidated railway system. There is some footage on youtube of the ramshackle trains that were only scheduled to run on weekends. As we were there midweek we knew that we wouldn't have the opportunity to ride one of these trains. When we got to Durres station we had mixed feelings. We were disheartened because there was absolutely no evidence of locos, or coaches, or even abandoned rolling stock. However, we were encouraged to see that there was plenty of activity with bulldozers and other heavy plant preparing for the re-laying of new railway track. There were also plenty of track sections with concrete sleepers waiting to be laid. A member of the engineering team said that it was a two year project, but by 2025 there would be a brand new infrastructure ready for new trains. What routes they planned on running we couldn't fathom out. However, having said all that a number of sceptical people in our local bar in Tirana were not convinced that the track would ever be laid, as corruption is rife in Albania, and any funding for this project would end up in officials pockets! Only time will tell?