Data show only 448,000 people travelled by train in the whole of 2012, down from 453,000 in 2011 and 645,000 in 2009, which is the average number of daily road transport.
TIRANA, June 5 – Albania’s dilapidated railway transport continues registering poor performance with transport of passengers and goods both declining. Data published by the Transport Institute show 2012 marked the poorest performance in the past four years in transport of passengers, and goods both domestically and internationally. Data show only 448,000 people travelled by train in the whole of 2012, down from 453,000 in 2011 and 645,000 in 2009, which is the average number of daily road transport.
Data show some 395,000 vehicles were registered in Albania until the end of 2012, of which 387,000 had undergone technical control. Some 1.870 road accidents took place in 2012 claiming 334 lives, the highest number in the past four years.
Government says it is seeking an investor to award a concession contract for the country’s poorly-performing public railway sector. In a state of dilapidation and in constant lower revenues for the past 20 years, the state-owned Albanian Railways company has announced it will lay off 20 percent of its staff. The cuts are part of a reform aimed at reducing losses in the bankrupt railway sector which costs the state budget more than 500 million lek (around 5 million dollars) each year.
London-based EBRD has been approached by the Albanian government to lead a technical cooperation project aimed at revitalizing Albanian railways, currently in a poor condition and used very little for passenger transport.
The joint EBRD Transport Ministry project will carry out a design of the key Durres-Tirana railway line, as the most efficient in passenger transport, and the financial/economic appraisal of the whole Albanian railway network.
A recent World Bank report has ranked the state-owned Albanian railways as the poorest in Southeast Europe as far as traffic density and productivity is concerned.
The low level of traffic reflects few passenger trains per day, with distances between stations of 17 km to 50 km. The underlying reasons for declining passenger numbers also include long-travel times, unreliability of services, and uncomfortable coaches. Between Durres and Tiranaء 37 km sectionנthe track was modernized in 1997, yet the speed limit remains 60 km/hour. The rail network is small, with 444 km of single track non-electrified rail with standard gauge, of which 424 km is operated. It consists of 4 main lines: (i) Durres to Tirana; (ii) Durres to Vlore through Rrogozhine; Rrogozhine to Pogrodec; and Vore to Hani i Hotit. In addition, there are two branch lines, one of which is not operational, and two industrial connectionsudull to Fushe-Kruje for cement and Elbasan to the Kurum steel facility. Although the railway was constructed to serve the freight market, passenger services operate throughout the network, with the exception being between Shkoder and Hani i Hotit.
The Albanian railway company (Hekurudha Shqiptare – HSH) is responsible for rail infrastructure and rail operations on the Albanian rail network. There has been a prolonged period of low investment and maintenance work has been restricted to essential work only. The track is in workable but poor condition. Currently, some 2,100 people are employed in the railways sector, which has seen no major investments during the past 20 years after the collapse of the communist system.
In March 2010, the Albanian government was fined USD 20 million over the unilateral annulment of a 2003 contract, worth Euro 74 million with General Electric. The project cancelled in 2005 was aimed at modernizing the Tirana-Durres railway segment, known also as the electric train, which would have been linked with Mother Theresa International Airport.
