WeChat official account "Embassy of China in Serbia" reported that on October 3, the section of the Hungary-Serbia Railway from Novi Sad to Subotica within Serbia was completed and opened for operation, marking the full opening of the Serbian section of the Hungary-Serbia Railway.
President of Serbia Vučić, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Mesarošević, Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Sofronijević, the head of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and mayor of Belgrade, among others, took the first train from Belgrade Central Station to Subotica. Ambassador Li Ming and officials from China Railway Corporation and China Communications Construction Company accompanied them throughout the journey.
President Vučić stated that the Hungary-Serbia Railway project is a great success for Serbia. The first train travels at a speed of 200 km/h, reducing the travel time from Belgrade to Subotica to just 68 minutes, significantly shortening the travel time, promoting economic integration along the route, injecting strong momentum into the balanced development of the region and national economic prosperity, and significantly enhancing Serbia's status as a transportation hub connecting the Balkans to the center of Europe. He expressed gratitude to the leaders of China and his Chinese friends for their support, stating that Chinese enterprises have performed exceptionally well, and that the two countries will continue to carry out more extensive cooperation in the future.
Ambassador Li stated that the Hungary-Serbia Railway is the first high-speed railway built by Chinese enterprises in Europe, a flagship project of cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries, and a major project under the Belt and Road Initiative that aligns with European development strategies. The full opening of the Serbian section of the Hungary-Serbia Railway is the latest achievement of the new era community with a shared future between the Chinese and Serbian peoples, a new milestone in the ironclad friendship between China and Serbia, and has opened up broad prospects for the construction, development, and prosperity of Serbia.
The WeChat official account "China Railway" introduced that the Hungary-Serbia Railway connects the capital of Serbia, Belgrade, with the capital of Hungary, Budapest. It is a flagship project of cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries and also the first project to adopt independently developed Chinese railway technology and equipment, passing the EU railway interoperability technical specifications (TSI) certification. The line is 341.7 kilometers long, of which 183.1 kilometers are within Serbia, designed for a speed of 200 km/h; 158.6 kilometers are within Hungary, designed for a speed of 160 km/h.
The section of the Hungary-Serbia Railway from Belgrade to Novi Sad within Serbia was already opened for operation on March 19, 2022. Serbia became the first country in the Balkan Peninsula to enter the high-speed rail era, with the highest operating speed of trains increasing from 40 to 50 km/h to 200 km/h, and the travel time between the two cities being reduced from over 90 minutes to about 30 minutes. A daily average of 62 passenger trains operate, and an annual average of over 3.4 million passengers are transported, receiving widespread praise from the Serbian government and people.
The newly opened section of the Hungary-Serbia Railway within Serbia, from Novi Sad to Subotica, starts at the second-largest city of Novi Sad station and ends at the border city of Subotica station, with a total length of 108.1 kilometers, and 12 stations, of which the Vršac station is a newly built station, while the rest are renovated existing stations.
Since the official start of construction on July 1, 2022, Chinese and Serbian railway builders have fully utilized advanced Chinese railway technology and equipment and mature construction experience, optimized on-site construction organization, strengthened safety and quality control, ensuring the smooth progress of the engineering construction. During this period, the static acceptance, dynamic acceptance tests were carried out, passed the EU interoperability (NoBo) certification, the National Specification Conformity (DeBo) certification, and the Safety Assessment (AsBo) certification, and obtained the permission of the Serbian side, meeting the conditions for operation.
All sections of the Hungarian-Serbian Railway within Serbia have adopted the ETCS-L2 train control system and communication signals, power and electrification, rails, turnouts, bridge steel structures, etc., independently developed by China's railway and certified by the EU railway interoperability technical specifications (TSI). Since June 2018, during the construction and operation cooperation of the Hungarian-Serbian Railway within Serbia, the participating units of China and Serbia have widely conducted high-speed rail technology exchanges and training activities, cultivating a batch of high-speed rail construction and operation talents for Serbia; actively employing local employees, creating a large number of job opportunities; purchasing local building materials according to local conditions, promoting the development of industries along the route, injecting strong momentum into the friendly cooperation between China and Serbia, and further consolidating the ironclad friendship between the two peoples.
After the full operation of the entire Hungarian-Serbian Railway within Serbia, the train travel time from Belgrade to the border city of Subotica has been reduced from the original over 5 hours to a maximum of 1 hour and 19 minutes, greatly improving the passenger capacity, transport efficiency, and service quality, which will greatly facilitate the travel of people along the route and promote the development of tourism resources and urbanization along the route.
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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7557281471803687463/
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