The promise of traveling by train from Tirana to Durrës within a few minutes remains unrealized despite the deadlines.
The government-touted railway rehabilitation project, initially announced as one of the country's major public transport investments, has had its deadlines changed several times over the last four years.
While the works are reported to be completed by the end of 2026, testing and the start of operations are expected to be further delayed, turning the railway line into another infrastructure project that remains on hold for years.
The train will not depart in 2026 either, but it could in the first quarter of 2027.
"We believe we will be able to complete the entire project by early 2024," said the then Minister of Infrastructure, Belinda Balluku – currently accused of tender abuse – in 2022 while accompanying the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, for the launch of works on the Tirana-Durres railway.
Von Der Leyen reacted with surprise: "Wow, early 2024. Then you'll get on a train and go to the coast." The surprise was natural, as the project has repeatedly exceeded the announced deadlines.
When the works began, Balluku stated that they would be completed within 30 months, or in the summer of 2023. The deadline was then postponed to September of that same year.
In April 2023, during the campaign for the local elections, Balluku again inspected the construction site with the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, currently indicted for corruption, stating that the railway would be completed in March 2024.
“[…] it is very important as it connects Tirana with Durrës, but […] also with the new port in Porto Romano through the Sukthi junction”, Balluku expressed.
In January 2024, Albanian Railways (HSH) told Citizens.al that the deadline was postponed for the first quarter of 2025. Today, according to the Railways, about 90% of the works have been completed. The official deadline for the completion of the works remains December 2026, but not the start of operations.
"The line is expected to begin testing and operation during the first quarter of 2027," HSH told Citizens.al.
According to HSH, the delays are related to the expropriation process for the construction of the new line to Tirana International Airport (TIA). It cites the addition of a contract for the construction of stations, the arrangement of squares and electrification.
The costs of bringing the railway back to life
The project envisages the rehabilitation of the existing Tirana-Durrës line, a terminal and the construction of a new line (Domje-Rinas) towards TIA, with a total distance of 39 kilometers.
It dates back to 2016, when it was selected as one of the priority projects at the Paris Summit and secured funding through the European Union Investment Framework for the Western Balkans.
That same year, the environmental declaration was also received from the Ministry of Environment. HSH says that approximately 72.3 million euros were initially financed by a loan agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and a grant from the WBIF/EU.
Additional financing was then approved through a loan from the EBRD, worth around 40.7 million euros. HSH explained that this refinancing covered price indexation (29 million euros), the construction of railway stations (10.5 million euros) and the supervision of the works together with technical assistance (1.2 million euros).
According to HSH, the total value of investment and technical assistance amounts to around 113 million euros, while 108.9 million have been spent so far.
But, another addition of around 25 million euros is foreseen in the form of grants and loans for the railway line electrification project, which according to HSH "it will be a new contract (third contract)".
Projects remaining on track in 2024
During 2024, it turns out that 210 anticipated and budgeted investment projects did not begin to be implemented.
A monitoring report of the organization Qëndresa Kyjetare shows that their failure to implement them has created many years of delays, depriving citizens of infrastructural benefits.
"Of the 210 investment projects foreseen for 2024 and not yet realized, 112 are related to the construction, maintenance or supervision of water supply systems," the report states.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy results in the highest number of unrealized investments in the 2024-2026 Medium-Term Budget Program, which also includes the rehabilitation of the Durrës-Tirana Passenger Terminal railway line.
"The projects that stand out the most for not being implemented are the construction of road segments, railway lines and water supply systems," the report points out.
The total value of these unrealized projects amounts to 11,956,313,051 lekë (about 124 million euros).
Also Read:
- "When will the train come?"; The delays of the Tirana - Durrës railway project weigh on citizens' pockets
- "The train is not coming this year either"
- The "Tirana-Durrës" train will not depart even in 2025
Erisa Kryeziu has completed higher studies in Journalism and Communication and Master of Science in Public Relations at the University of Tirana. She has been a journalist and project manager at Citizens.al for five years, where she reports on social issues and human rights, especially on issues of rights at work, in education, gender equality, marginalized groups, people with disabilities such as and for environmental issues. At the same time, she works as a project coordinator with a focus on youth and media education. User of new reporting techniques such as "Mobile Journalism" and citizen engagement tools in reporting (ECR-Engage Citizens Journalism).
