After decades of degradation and neglect, field work has begun for the rehabilitation of the Tirana-Durra railway. Although the deadline for the completion of the project was September 2023, only 45% of the total works have been completed on the ground.
The Albanian Railways in a response to Citizens Channel said that the deadline for the completion of the works has been postponed to March 2024, i.e. by 8 months from the deadline set in the contract.
HSH's response dated 01.06.2023
HSH's response dated 17.06.2022
The construction of the train station in Tirana is part of the railway rehabilitation project existing Tirana-Durrës, and the construction of a new branch towards Rinas.
Tirana is the only capital in Europe without a train. The former terminus of the Tirana-Durres line, which was located in the center of the capital, was removed in 2013, moving it to Kashar. Thus, the railway was abandoned by the inhabitants of Tirana who earlier used the train as the cheapest means of transport.
This project started to be discussed years ago, but in 2016 the Ministry of Environment issued the Environmental Declaration. But since the release of the statement, the implementation of the project has proceeded with slow steps, violating the deadlines.
Transport expert Sadedin Celiku says that the delay is related to the transfer of funds. He says that the railway has been left in degradation and has not been in the attention of governments to invest.
"No government was interested, there are many reasons, but corruption is one of the reasons. Today, the railway network (450 km) is fully amortized, so it has depreciation, rails, sleepers, rolling stock (locomotives, freight and passenger wagons) as well as all signaling equipment.", Celiku told Citizens Channel.
The rehabilitated Tirana-Durres line is expected to allow a train speed of at least 100 km/h, and although not yet determined, it is estimated that the ticket price will be between 1–1.2 euros.
The project envisages the rehabilitation of 34.7 km of existing railway line between Tirana and Durrës, as well as the construction of about 5 km of new line from Tirana to Rinas.
The costs of the project have been split between a grant from the European Union and a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The government covers only part of the VAT in this project.
On October 19, 2020, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced the winner of the Italian company INC SPA with an offer of 69.69 million euros. EBRD announced that the duration of the contract would be 30 months, so the works would last 2 and a half years. Even the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku, at the ceremony held on February 3, 2021, where the contract between the parties was officially signed, made the same statement.
"The works will be completed within a period of 30 months, or in the summer of 2023. We will closely follow the entire progress of the project. This, to facilitate the process and the second and most important reason to provide complete transparency of the process", Balluku declared.
Oblivion of the railway
Citizens Channel has produced a series of three documentaries "Iron, Dust and Fear", which deals precisely with the void left by the public's forgetfulness in public transport. Hekur is the first documentary of this cycle. The iron of the rails that once connected people today has turned to rust. More than half of the 447 kilometers of railway is completely out of order, and what is left is almost unusable. The first documentary of this cycle deals with "The long road from Tirana to Durrës" bringing stories from the eyes of experts, users and former employees of the railway. The Albanian railway network today resembles only a distant memory of what it was during the 1980s. With the change of regime, rails rusted and trains were destroyed, while governments focused on building roads and citizens turned to private cars. This reversal of priorities left all forms of public transport in oblivion, isolating especially the most disadvantaged sections of society.
Dust is the second documentary of this cycle. Dust is a journey into this forgotten infrastructure and a conversation with the people who built it. The Albanian railway network today resembles only a distant memory of what it was during the 1980s. With the change of regime, rails rusted and trains were destroyed, while governments focused on building roads and citizens turned to private cars. This reversal of priorities left all forms of public transport in oblivion, isolating especially the most disadvantaged sections of society.
He completed master's studies in Investigative Journalism at the Department of Journalism at the University of Tirana. She has been working as a journalist for five years, where she previously covered issues of politics and parliamentary activity, in print and online media. She is currently a journalist at Citizens.al, where she covers various social issues related to the transparency of institutions. At Citizens.al, she leads the podcast "The Unheard" and is engaged as a manager of projects related to the support of investigative journalism.
