Macedonia railway network.

[stadler]

It looks like the railway network in Macedonia has been suspended until further notice due to strikes with the train drivers demanding a pay increase.

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Passenger rail traffic in the Republic of Macedonia has been suspended, while locomotive crews demand a pay raise

The executive mechanical staff of the "Macedonian Railways" has entered into a boycott as of 13:00 today, which means that the employees will come to work, but will not perform their work duties. Due to the boycott, passenger rail traffic has been disrupted, namely the train to Bitola has not started and, according to warnings, the train to Gevgelija will not start either.

The Train Drivers' Union says the boycott could last longer because the company's management team is not listening to their demands. They expect the management team to call them into a meeting to discuss their demands.

"We have a total of 15 requests that we submitted to the management team on October 2. We were answered two months later, on November 28, on Friday we received a response in which we explained that the company is in a difficult financial situation and does not have sufficient funds for our requests," said the president of the Train Drivers' Union and representative of the executive train staff, Toni Dimovski, in a statement to AIM.

Some of the demands include overtime pay, and for those who have worked over 150 hours of overtime, an additional salary, an increase in the coefficient by 0.80 due to the increase in living costs, payment of 10 percent of the salary for extraordinary calls at work.

Dimkovski points out that some of the requirements apply to all employees, and some to train drivers. This amounts to a total of 603 employees. Of these, 46 are active train drivers and about 30 are assistants.

The railway in Macedonia is an appalling state these days. I remember when i last visited just over a year ago and everything was in such bad condition. Better than in Albania and Kosovo but still one of the worst Mainland European rail networks.

Half the network has been shut down in recent years mostly due to lines falling in to disrepair.

The only lines that currently have booked service are:

• 8tpd in each direction from Skopje to Veles
• 3tpd in each direction from Veles to Bitola
• 2tpd in each direction from Veles to Gevgelija
• 2tpd in each direction from Skopje to Kumanovo

The other lines from Veles to Kocani and from Skopje to Kicevo and from Skopje to Blace have been shut for over five years. All of the international routes to and from Greece and Kosovo and Serbia are shut. It is very poor compared to what used to exist.

When i last visited they randomly cancelled a bunch of trains and it was impossible to know what was running without turning up and asking at the ticket office. They seem to just run whatever they can on the day depending on rolling stock availability and staff availability. From what i hear it is still as bad to this day.

They have 6x units (2x Class 411 EMUs plus 4x Class 711 DMUs) built by CRRC in China which form half of the services and are the only modern trains in their fleet. The other half of services are formed of some locomotive hauled trains with knackered old Yugoslav carriages that are in an appalling condion. They also have some old Yugoslav era Class 412 EMUs and Class 712 DMUs but they all seem to be out of use now and i doubt they will ever enter service again.

 

[Segedunum]

A rather fascinating article from 2024 shows just how absurd things were getting:

There is a railway, there are also staff, but there are no actual trains. Not one passenger has traveled from here by train in more than three years. The last daily train, a direct connection to the capital, Skopje, was scrapped during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only a few of the town’s residents gravitate around the station, heirs of the former railway workers who live in several apartments that form part of the station building.

One of them assured BIRN that the station is still operating, although at first glance it does not seem to be the case.

“There is a chief, and several staff – international cashiers,” he said proudly, dialing a phone in an attempt to reach the head of the station.

I did have a wander into Skopje station in Feb 2024 and watched the arrival of a train but didn't travel. It was a truly bleak place despite the size of it.

I visited a museum that same day in the centre of the city only to be told by a lone security guard that entry was free as none of the staff had turned up. Perhaps the railway is a wider reflection of the state of things in the country - which is a shame as I found the people to be incredibly welcoming.

 

[Fragezeichnen]

Reportedly they have just a couple of working locos for the whole network, in addition to whatever chinese units aren't broken yet, and the timetable has been fictitious for years.

The truly exasperating thing about all this is that it was planned this year to open up access to the network to other operators(a requirement in any case for their eventual aim of EU membership), and the usual suspects like ÖBB Cargo were preparing to enter the market. It was probably the only chance for the rail network to have a chance at actually functioning, at least for freight. However, at the last minute it was cancelled with the justification that the jobs of those same people now on strike would be threatened.

Amazingly the head of Macedonian railways turned up at the Innotrans trade fair last year and participated in a panel discussion. You'd think he'd be too embarrassed to show his face.

 

[route101]

I remember taking a service from Skopje south to Greece.

 

[stadler]

A rather fascinating article from 2024 shows just how absurd things were getting:


I did have a wander into Skopje station in Feb 2024 and watched the arrival of a train but didn't travel. It was a truly bleak place despite the size of it.

I visited a museum that same day in the centre of the city only to be told by a lone security guard that entry was free as none of the staff had turned up. Perhaps the railway is a wider reflection of the state of things in the country - which is a shame as I found the people to be incredibly welcoming.

Thank you for the article link. That is hilarious. They have international cashiers even though no trains have run internationally for over half a decade. Also employing staff at stations on lines with no trains is bonkers. So if there are no trains then that means that the staff come in to work every day and do absoutely nothing. Maybe that explains why they have so many problems. Wasting massive amounts of money on employing staff to sit around at stations with zero trains.

Reportedly they have just a couple of working locos for the whole network, in addition to whatever chinese units aren't broken yet, and the timetable has been fictitious for years.

The truly exasperating thing about all this is that it was planned this year to open up access to the network to other operators(a requirement in any case for their eventual aim of EU membership), and the usual suspects like ÖBB Cargo were preparing to enter the market. It was probably the only chance for the rail network to have a chance at actually functioning, at least for freight. However, at the last minute it was cancelled with the justification that the jobs of those same people now on strike would be threatened.

Amazingly the head of Macedonian railways turned up at the Innotrans trade fair last year and participated in a panel discussion. You'd think he'd be too embarrassed to show his face.

That would not surprise me. I could count the amount of working locomotives and units on one hand when i visited. I walked around some of the depots and train yards when i last visited and about three quarters of the stuff was broken. Sidings full of old broken locomotives and carriages and DMUs and EMUs that were not in working condition. They have allowed their stock to get in such bad shape. They seem to have very basic facilities for repairing and maintaing their stock.

I remember taking a service from Skopje south to Greece.

I remember taking the train between Macedonia and Greece too. I think it was around 2015 that the Macedonia to Greece service got withdrawn. Then around 2018 was when the Macedonia to Serbia service got withdrawn. Such a shame that they have lost all of their international services.

 

[Paul AC]

It's a crying shame that the railways in North Macedonia (to give the country it's correct current name) have got into such a state. I visited it first in 2004 when it had a reasonable service on most routes, except for none to Kičevo (hadn't run since 2001) and into Kosovo; and when had Bitola to Florina (Greece) ceased?

Purchasing the CRRC DMUs and EMUs no doubt seemed like a good idea at the time but like many other similar cases they've suffered greatly from lack of support and spare parts.

Mentioning Skopje - Bitola - Florina, lots of someone's money has been spent on both sides of the border to get this line back into some semblance of working order, but there has been no agreement for international working, and I'm not sure there ever will be. We got as far as Neos Kafkasos on the Greek side on a PTG railtour in 2014, so when one Bitola train was shown as extending 11 km to Žabeni in early 2023 I took the opportunity to travel on it in March 2023; and I'm very glad I did as it ceased later that year when that Bitola working stopped. I suspect the Žabeni train has never run since, but at least my gap across the border at Kremenica is now only about 10 km....

Then there's the proposed new line from Gyueshevo in Bulgaria, this has been on and off for many years and quite a lot of construction work has been done. I did some exploring with a hire car in both 2014 and 2023, there's plenty of new viaduct construction, some of it half built. There also quite of lot of interesting disused rail interest to see in the country, I've been able to view some of the former narrow gauge line to Kičevo, only closed in 1956 when the present standard gauge line opened.

With the complete lack of rail border crossings now, even visiting what is left involves using a bus or flying.

A selection of my photos of (North) Macedonia can be found on my website at https://www.steane.com/gallery/index.php?/tags/28-macedonia_north_macedonia

 

[MarcVD]

I remember taking a service from Skopje south to Greece.

Yes I have done that too. From Köln all the way to Athens and back. With my then girlfriend who later became my wife. And promised ”never again”... That was in 1980. Last time I went to Greece by train was in 2015 via Bulgaria, when that border point was still active for passengers.

I understand that passenger traffic in North Macedonia is almost extinct, but what about freight ? Are there still freight trains crossing the Gevgeliya/Idomeni border point ? Wasn't the Beograd - Thessaloniki line fully electrified ?

 

[Richard Scott]

I remember taking the train between Macedonia and Greece too. I think it was around 2015 that the Macedonia to Greece service got withdrawn. Then around 2018 was when the Macedonia to Serbia service got withdrawn. Such a shame that they have lost all of their international services.

It certainly ran in 2019 as remember doing it from Beograd up to the Greek border. We had to get a rail replacement bus to Thessaloniki.
Despite the route being electrified it was hauled by a 661 all the way through North Macedonia. There was a shortage of suitable electric locos then meaning the train was diesel hauled for most of the season, if I remember correctly?

 

[stadler]

Just seen this recent article saying that Macedonia wants to build a new railway line and tunnel to connect to the Bulgaria railway network:

Bulgaria and North Macedonia agree cross-border tunnel

BULGARIA and North Macedonia to progress joint construction of a 2.4km east-west cross-border rail tunnel between Gyushevo and Kriva Palanka.

www.railjournal.com

Bulgaria and North Macedonia agree cross-border tunnel.

Project is expected to cost €2bn.

BULGARIA and North Macedonia signed an agreement on November 6 for the joint construction of a 2.4km east-west cross-border rail tunnel between Gyushevo and Kriva Palanka.

The project, that will create a new rail link between the two countries, is part of the ongoing development of the European Union’s (EU) TEN-T Western Balkans - Eastern Mediterranean Corridor, connecting Albania's Adriatic port of Durres to Bulgaria's Black Sea port of Varna via North Macedonia.

According to Bulgarian news outlet Seenow, the line in Bulgaria is divided into four sections, with total investment estimated at over €1.2bn ($US 1.4bn). The four sections are:

• a 2.4km section from the tunnel to the border village of Gyueshevo. The government has already tendered construction work, with a November 11deadline for bids

• Gyueshevo - Radomir: at the design stage, with work expected to continue for six months, and tendering expected from mid-2026

• Radomir - Pernik: tender in progress, with a contract set to be awarded by the end of November, and

• Sofia - Pernik: in the planning phase, with a construction tender expected next year.

On North Macedonia's side, the total investment for the construction of the line from Kumanovo to the Bulgarian border is valued at €810m.

Next month, the transport ministry hopes to relaunch a tender for the 24km section between Kriva Palanka and the Bulgarian border. The previous tender, launched in December 2023, was cancelled last year, when the estimated cost of €560m was deemed too expensive.

The section between Kumanovo and Beljakovce opened in January this year, while the Beljakovce - Kriva Palanka section is under construction.

It is unclear when tunnelling work is likely to begin and no date has yet been given for its completion.

"I think this deal is a dream of generations on both sides of the border. It's something we read and learned about as children,” says North Macedonia's transport minister, Aleksandar Nikoloski.

"I hope the start of this project will give new momentum to completing the entire railway, providing our citizens with faster, safer, and more environmentally friendly transport for both passengers and freight,” says Grozdan Karadjov, Bulgaria's deputy prime minister and minister of transport and communications.

What is the chance that this new line actually gets built. Macedonia can barely maintain their current railway network. How are they going to find 2 billion euros (which is 123 billion Macedonia Dinar at the current exchange rate) to build this.

This paragraph does not give much hope to the project actually being built:

It is unclear when tunnelling work is likely to begin and no date has yet been given for its completion.

Seems like a vague plan with nobody knowing when they will start work or if the project will ever actually be built.

Personally i doubt that it will be built when you consider what a poor state that the current Macedonia railway network is in.

 

[izvor]

"The section between Kumanovo and Beljakovce opened in January this year, while the Beljakovce - Kriva Palanka section is under construction."

I remember reading about this announcement, with great fanfare, at the time. This was not a new line but the reconstruction of a 1956 line that also intended to extend into Bulgaria but never did, so ending in the middle of nowhere and carrying a skeleton passenger service for a while until closure (not sure exactly when but between 1984 and 1991, so prior to the break-up of Yugoslavia) and reversion to nature. I believe the works extended on towards Bulgaria but not sure how far. Soviet mapping shows its course across the mountains forming the border - quite an "interesting" line if built.

Now it looks like the same fate awaits this expensively restored but still useless line. How history repeats itself!

As you suggest, a relatively small amount of money restoring the existing railway network to operation would be far more beneficial, but the investors and politicians always go for the glitzy vanity projects. The North Macedonian equivalent of HS2, perhaps?

 

[dutchflyer]

More as half should/is expected, of course, why even ask?- from the EU. Macedonia, from what I recall is since long on the list of potential members, but as for now is considered ´to weak´ or whatever one may call it, for full membership. Though I myself would think that EU-money for a thorough upgrade and renovation of the classic north-south line from GReece to what is now Rep. Serbia with even the odd through train running is a better investment for a few 100 miilions of €. BG=Bulgaria will change to € as money from 1/1 this week.

 

[stadler]

Just seen this very recent new video on youtube of the Macedonia railway network which summarises the current state very well:

It looks like it continues to get worse and worse. The main railway depot in Macedonia looks more like a scrapyard than a depot. Probably about 90% of their rolling stock is broken. This is their only depot but yet almost everything is falling apart and damaged beyond repair. It looks like they strip almost every train for spare parts just to keep the remaining few locomotives running. It is sad to see what a state the Macedonia railways are in.

 

[yeti]

I travelled north from Skopje to Belgrade in 2011. The carriage was an ex Norwegian Railways first class coach. It was very comfortable. When I sat down I thought I was in a leather seat but it quickly became obvious that the shiny patina was dirt polished into the fabric with a tobacco fragrance.
It would be good to think that things have improved in North Macedonia but judging by the above reports it has not.

 

[alex397]

The above video also shows Skopje Station towards the end, also in a very sorry state. It looks like an abandoned building, and at night parts of the station are unlit. Quite something for the main station of a capital city!

 

[dutchflyer]

Quite something for the main station of a capital city!

Tirana, capital of Albania-right beside and having much more people, is similar.
Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, with over 17 mln people, got a brand new and for now rather oversized airport-some 40 KMs away from town, has a station that on lucky days sees 2 trains departing-on less lucky days just 1.
The same is probably the case for quite a few capital cities in Africa, though the stations as such may-or may not- be kept pristine as prestige object.
Its just that I often think the value of those iron monsters on steel rails tends to be overrated.

 

[stadler]

The same youtube account has just recently published yet another new video of Macedonia which gives an even better look around the main Skopje railway station.

Watch from 00:24 to 04:16 for a detailed look around Skopje railway station and from 31:51 to 35:17 for a ride on the trains:

What an absoulute state this railway station has gotten in to recently. At one point this was one of the largest and most important Yugoslavia stations. It looks almost abandoned now.

Most of the lighting in the station is broken causing it to be very dark. The station has 10 platforms but only 5 platforms appear to be usable. The other half have have abandoned trackbeds.

The lifts to all platforms are all broken and abandoned and the lift shafts are filled with pigeons using them as nesting sites. This means the main railway station in Macedonia has no access for wheelchair users. The only way to reach any of the platforms is by stairs. The motor rooms above the lifts seem to be used by homeless people as a place to sleep.

What a disgrace that the government of Macedonia has allowed their railways to get in to such an utterly appalling state. Although most of the ex Yugoslavia countries are also quite bad. Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, are all equally as bad at maintaining their railways. It is such a shame. They have just given up on their railways after gaining independence.

I suppose if Macedonia ever joins the EU then they may be able to get funding to properly restore their railways. That is probably the only chance at any improvement. Certainly the current Macedonia government have no interest in their railways.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

The lifts to all platforms are all broken and abandoned and the lift shafts are filled with pigeons using them as nesting sites. This means the main railway station in Macedonia has no access for wheelchair users. The only way to reach any of the platforms is by stairs. The motor rooms above the lifts seem to be used by homeless people as a place to sleep.

Those are the old luggage lifts.
There are new passenger lifts installed on some of the platforms, although whether they still work is another thing.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Although most of the ex Yugoslavia countries are also quite bad. Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, are all equally as bad at maintaining their railways.

Albania was never part of Yugoslava, and I presume that you wouldn't rate Slovenia, Croatia or Serbia on the same level as Macedonia.