The President of the European Commission of the Serbia-North Macedonia Railway announced in a meeting with Serbian President Alexander Vuzic that the European Union is ready to provide funding for the construction of the Serbia-North Macedonia Railway Line Ursula von der Leyen.

The President of Serbia stated that the European Union will provide financial support covering 35% to 50% of the project cost, resulting in 600 million euros in funding. It is expected that the project will also receive support from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The Serbia-North Macedonia railway project includes the reconstruction of the 243.5-kilometer line between Belgrade and Niš, and will provide a rail link to Presevo in southern Serbia and Skopje in North Macedonia. The Niš–Preševo railway line is one of the oldest railway lines in Serbia and the most important part of the X corridor that runs through Serbia. It has a total length of 151 km and is electrified using a single-phase 25 kV, 50 Hz system over its entire length. According to the project, the railway section of Brestovac-Vinarci, Orevo-Vranjska Banja, Ristovac-Bujanovac i Bukarevac-Presevo-adjacent to North Macedonia will be refurbished for 92 kilometers. This will increase the commercial speed from 43km/h to 76km/h.

In June 2020, under the initiative of the Western Balkan Investment Framework (WBIF), the EU-funded Niš-Preševo and North Macedonia border railway interconnection technical assistance project has been launched. This sub-project involves the restoration of a 132.6 km long single railway line between Brestovac (15 km south of Niš) and Preševo on the border between Serbia and North Macedonia. The European Union allocated 3.5 million euros in technical assistance grants through WBIF to prepare documents before implementation. The total investment of 182.2 million euros is the restoration of the Niš-Preševo railway line and through the 90.5 million euro investment bank loan, 14.67 million euros of financing countries contributed 4 million euros in EU-funded technical assistance and potential additional WBIF grants of more than 70 million euros.

The Belgrade-Niš railway project is expected to cost 2 billion euros and will allow trains to run on the Niš-Preševo railway line at a speed of 200km/h and a speed of 160km/h. The construction project is expected to start in 2021 and is scheduled to be completed in 2023. The line connecting the two countries is part of the European Transport Corridor X. Editor/Huang Lijun