-Railways is extremely expensive traffic system, which development in Serbia is conditioned by improving reliability, punctuality and speed of trains. Due to great support of the state, we will solve the problem of bad infrastructure, which represents an obstacle for further development of the railway system as the whole. Belgrade urban and suburban railway traffic is a great example for that, bearing in mind that two third of the total number of transported passengers in this year is realized on these routes – said president of “Serbian Railways” Assembly Zoran Anđelković, this evening in Belgrade, during the meeting with high officials of Italian region Lombardy.

He represented to the guest from Lombardy some of the most significant modernization projects of Serbian Railways in the next period and invited them to engage more actively in infrastructure projects in our country in future.

-A great mission is ahead of you, but I am sure that through sharing our experiences and opinions we can find possibilities to achieve joint projects within your investment programs. This is the first step towards a successful and long term economic cooperation – said President of the Council of the Italian region of Lombardy and Minister of Transport for many years Raffaele Cattaneo, and offered help to Serbian Railways in sharing contacts with their Italian colleagues.

He introduced Serbian Railways management with manners of functioning and financing of regional railway traffic in Lombardy within Italian State Railways, pointing out that in regional traffic special six-year contracts are used to define the State and Region obligations regarding financing of railways. In organization of regional railway transport Lombardy controls on its territory 47% of the traffic and ca. 700 thousand passengers are transported daily on these routes.

Serbian Railways management informed guests from Lombardy on the current situation of the traffic system, difficulties it is encountered with, as well as plans for its modernization in the next few years.

-We cannot afford the luxury of a failure, and your experience is welcome. We have an intensive restructuring and modernization of Serbian railways ahead of us and Italian experiences could be of great use and importance – said Predrag Janković, Executive Director of “Serbian Railways”, and introduced the guests from Italy with investment projects which will be realized in the next period on Serbian railways.

According to his words, the first step in making a positive atmosphere for investment in Serbian railways has been already made by adopting the new Law on Railways, which envisages development of five-year plans, which encourages foreign investments since there are state guaranties.
The guests from Lombardy invited their hosts to visit them and to introduce themselves personally with organization and functioning of Italian railway system in this region.