Railways in Croatia
Grandiose motifs in spectacular scenery
The railway in Croatia exerts magic and fascination on those who are well disposed to the railway. Unfortunately, the Croatian government and politicians, as well as their Eastern European neighbors, have failed to invest in an environmentally friendly mode of transport, instead they were pumping all their money into broad and straightforward highways. So the railroad lines have fallen behind and can't really compete with trucks or long-distance buses. The one man's sorrow is another man's joy. For the railway photographer, the lack of investment turns out to be an Eldorado, a paradise for friends of hard-working diesel locomotives at the mountain with a freight train on a hook in a magnificent landscape without an ugly noise protection wall. Popular and well-known are the Lika and the Dalmatian railway line with its former junction Knin.
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Is the railway in Croatia a serious alternative to road traffic? All data are based on the timetable of 2019. The train service between the largest city in Croatia Zagreb and the second largest city of the country Split is rather modest. Split is located directly on the Adriatic Sea, lures with beach and sea and a touristically attractive old town. The station itself is located directly next to the harbor, from where the ferries to the surrounding islands arrive and leave. Also cruise liners dock here. It would be an optimal link for travellers and vacationers. By the way, it is only a few meters from the train station and the harbor to the very worth seeing old town.
The passenger, however, can take during the day just one single Intercity train pair. Seasonally runs a second train. And both trains drive in the constellation shown as a diesel motor train set composed of only the two railcars. You can calculate for yourself the capacity of offered seats. There is a third train pair. This train only operates at night (departure in 2019 Zagreb 22:56h / Split 21:54h). This night train is hauled by a locomotive and includes (seasonal) coaches to Budapest, offering in this time for Hungarian people a comfortable arrival and departure to the Adriatic Sea. In the section on the Lika line between Ogulin and Knin, these trains even master the whole traffic; there is no public local rail transport. Whether the offer with buses on the parallel, well and fully developed highway A1 is similarly modest, I dare to doubt. The highway also pass the fifth largest city Zadar, while the rail traffic is discontinued. Further south to the jewel on the Adriatic coast, Dubrovnik, whose entire old town has been included in the World Heritage list by UNESCO, even has no rail link at all.
Between the largest and the third largest city in Croatia, from Zagreb to Rijeka, only one or two express trains (seasonally) with few coaches and one commuter train are offered per day. The trains are also not travelling with high speed on this single track railway line. This main line and European railway corridor isn't constructed straight ahead, thanks to the geological condition. The parallel, straight ahead lead, line-optimized and with much more lanes equipped highway A6 / E65 is in direct neighborhood. In the touristy very popular region Istria and there in the with Roman flair attached eighth largest city Pula you can't travel directly by train over Croatian territory. Here the rail traveling tourist has to take a detour over a foreign country. There exists only one rail connection via Slovenia to Pula.
Not even the railway main line between Zagreb and the Serbian capital Belgrade, formerly an important
domestic connection in Yugoslavia, can keep up with the railway axes of European neighbors.
The two lines north from Dugo Selo to Kutina or south from Zagreb to Sisak and Sunja are both
single-tracked lines and can sometimes only be used with slow speed. In Novska both branches are joined
and continues as double track line a little faster to the east. On the parallel highway A3
you drive certainly anyway faster. To the seventh largest city Slavonski Brod drive next to some
express trains some more local trains than as to Rijeka.
The northern located line in the river Drava plain to the fourth largest city Osijek is also a single track line, from Koprivnica not electrified, thus again a magnet for friends of diesel locomotives in front of fast trains. Even the 11th largest city of Varaždin can only be reached by diesel vehicles.
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railway gallery Japan. Also the railway traffic in
Sri Lanka,
Germany,
Slovenia and
Slovakia
were joined into a separate national gallery due to the huge choice of available pictures.
All other countries are summarized in the
international photo gallery. The steam locomotives mustn’t be missing,
but they have as well their own national galleries, one is reserved for
German steam trains, another for
Japanese steam train operations.
Although there are only 3 operational steam locomotives in
Sri Lanka, they have their own gallery, because an organized journey
will cause a lot of beautiful pictures in a magnificent landscape.
Chinese factory and coal mine railways were also spun off and joined together in its
China winter steam gallery, because the amount of available photos is simply
too intensive to show them in the regular steam locomotive gallery.
All other steam locomotives and trains pictures are joined together in the
worldwide photo gallery.
Following on from the picture gallery, there are explanations and requirements.
Further pages can be found on the subject of railways, train and locomotives.
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