We safely arrived at Bijelo Polje which I’ve wittered on about in my previous post and this is where we changed trains to get to Podgorica.
It’s fair to say that this didn’t look like the most decadent train that we were switching to.
The passengers began boarding with considerably more enthusiasm than the appearance of the train appeared to justify.
It was a compartment train and the rail operator hadn’t really burdened themselves with cleaning it. It was quite hot, but fortunately for those of us sitting by the window there was some cooling going on, so that improved matters a little.
The views were impressive and I should mention at this stage a little more about the Belgrade to Bar railway line. This line was conceived in 1952 as one of socialist Yugoslavia’s grand national projects, intended to connect the federal capital directly with the Adriatic coast. Serbia and Montenegro were each responsible for constructing their sections, which opened gradually between 1958 and 1976, so there was obviously no great hurry.
The final rails were joined south of Kolašin in November 1975 and President Josip Broz Tito formally opened the completed line on 28 May 1976, with electrification following in 1977. Building its 476 kilometre route through the Dinaric Mountains required 254 tunnels and more than 400 bridges, making it Yugoslavia’s most expensive infrastructure project and it was evident from the terrain just how challenging this must have been.
The short section passing through Bosnia and Herzegovina was the location of the Štrpci massacre in 1993, while parts of the Serbian route were badly damaged during NATO’s bombing campaign in 1999. Years of underfunding allowed the track and equipment to deteriorate, contributing to slower services and culminating in the Bioče derailment in Montenegro in 2006, which killed 47 people. Reconstruction of the Serbian section began in 2016, but trains still take substantially longer than the approximately seven hours achieved when the complete line was new. But at least it is working again and it offers some of the more beautiful views that I’ve seen from a train.
We shared the carriage with a group of friendly young Germans who were heading off on a long walking trip. We encountered them again the following day, but more of that in another blog post as I maintain my increasingly complicated network of narrative cliffhangers.
The large window on the side of the train gave extensive views of the valley as we started to approach Podgorica, it really was quite beautiful. This sort of view went on for much of the journey, it wasn’t just for a short stretch, all something of an engineering marvel. By this time I had long since eaten all my snacks that I had acquired in the morning, but fortunately still had sufficient drinks to keep me hydrated. This train wasn’t blessed with anything like a vending machine and it was something of a clunky beast that made all manner of noises as it trundled down the track. This wasn’t a long rail journey, it took around three hours and so was shorter than the first section.
I struggled to open the door when it was time to leave, but another passenger and Jonathan came to my assistance. It required what I considered to be an unreasonable amount of physical effort, although everyone else appeared to regard it as the routine operation of a door.
The locomotive that got us safely to Podgorica. We were on time and I was ready to go and walk the 100 metres to my hotel before we had chance to head into the centre of the city.
The two trains had provided a rather lovely experience and the total fare of around £20 felt exceptionally reasonable. It was my first proper visit to Montenegro and the first time I had experienced border controls taking place before the train doors were unlocked. The journey had beautiful views, fascinating history and a splendidly rickety second train that made enough noises to ensure that no-one became complacent about reaching Podgorica. A marvellous and memorable experience.