Only around 329,000 people travelled by train during the whole of 2013, down from 448,000 in 2012 and 6445,000 in 2009, which is less than the average daily number of people handled by road transport.
TIRANA, May 6 – Albania’s rail transport suffered another blow in 2013 when both handling of passengers and goods hit record lows, unveiling the critical situation of the railway sector which lacks adequate infrastructure.
Data published by the country’s Institute of Transport show only around 329,000 people travelled by train during the whole of 2013, down from 448,000 in 2012 and 6445,000 in 2009, which is less than the average daily number of people handled by road transport. The closure of the Tirana train station, which has probably made Tirana among the few capitals without rail transport, to pave the way to the extension of the Tirana boulevard has also influenced on rail traffic as passengers have been forced to get off in Vora, a town 10 km outside Tirana, since September 2013.
Meanwhile, rail transport of goods slightly recovered to 150,469 tonnes in 2013, up from 142,354 tonnes in 2012, but was down from 317,000 in 2011 and around 402,000 tonnes in 2010.
International rail transport also dropped to 98,608 tonnes in 2013, down from 135,959 tonnes in 2012 and 228,809 in 2011. Albania currently has a railway connection only with neighbouring Montenegro.
The former government had announced it was 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 is undergoing restructuring as 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.
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.
