Croatian Railways plans to cut international rail services
Replies: 4 - Last Post: Nov 27, 2012 3:15 PM Last Post By: debimcgrath
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Croatian Railways plans to cut international rail services
Dear friends,I think this is an important information for all people interested in visting Croatia and neighbouring countries, especially low budget travelers and backpackers since they are extremely reliant on passanger rail services. As of December this year, cross-border train travel to and from Croatia is about to get a whole lot more difficult: Croatian Railways has announced hat it is to cut 44 out of 56 daily international services, and even two of the remaining ones would run in summer only. You can read the announcement here:
Announcement by Croatian Railways (Croatian)
Announcement translated with Google Translate (English)
In short there will be only one train daily from Vienna to Zagreb, probably two trains from Belgrade, Sarajevo will only be connected to Zagreb by buses. Perhaps the worst situation will be for travelers from Budapest which won't be connected at all to Zagreb during the low season since there are no direct or indirect bus connections. I don't think that I have to stipulate additionally how train travel is the most environmental friendly mean of transportation or what consequences will those cuts have on our tourism and environment. This is also against all the trends of sustainable transportation in EU which Croatia aspires to join. And the most painful fact is that these cuts will make travel in Croatia more difficult. It started with the international services, will probably continue with domestic rail transport and probably end in making train travel in Croatia inaffordable for both Croatian citizens and tourists.
But there IS something you can do...
The international "World Carfree Network" has taken initiative in sending protest letters to Croatian Railways, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Environmental Protection with a plea to reconsider their decision to cut international railways lines. This petition is both in English and Croatian and anybody who thinks there is a good reason why this decision should be opposed can write it down. Do you come to Croatia by rail on holiday? Or have you been planning to? Do you regularly visit friends and relatives in neighbouring countries by train? Are you maybe a cyclist who likes to travel some of the route by rail and for whom buses are not a viable alternative? Any of these or any other reasons is a viable and good reason for you to sign the petition:
Sign it here on Change.org
Your effort will be appriciated more than you can imagine. And if you manage to visit Croatia your will perhaps have the opportunity to use the railways which few minutes of your time has managed to save.
Thank you in advance.
1
A sad reflection of the times and as the writer hints is echoed throughout much of Eastern & Southern Europe particularly.Low cost airlines and even buses make international and indeed national train travel increasingly irrelevant and overstretched governments have little scope to realistically subsidise these inefficient and slow railways. Croatian Railways, for what it is, is domestically a dinosaur with a questionable safety record and long overdue urgent rationalisation.
High speed is where the opportunity lies for international rail networks in the area but Croatia is some long way from that and realistically that will be down to the Chinese and their investment plans.
2
Unfortunate news and one that sent shivers through me as I'm right now planning a train journey through Croatia for next month!Let's hope it's a political ploy for EU funding given Croatia's imminent transition.
