Italian State Railways are extremely interested in securing a quality and efficient passenger rail connection between Northern Italy and Serbia, and in connecting Trieste and Venice with Belgrade. Italian State Railways would provide the most modern trains for this route. This kind of project should not be considered as merely commercial, rather as very important for both railways. “For that reason, we expect Croatian and Slovenian Railways, through which the new route shall pass, to support this project”- said Director General of Italian State Railways Mauro Moretti, who today visited “Serbian Railways” together with his associates.

Mauro Moretti, who is also Vice President of The International Union of Railways (UIC) and President of The Community of European Railways (CER), Director General of “Serbian Railways” Milovan Markovic and Assistant Minister of Infrastructure Dejan Lasica, were all present today at the commencement of work of the Joint Commission for the railway connection between Serbia and North Italy.
The task of this Joint Commission is to analyze all technical, technological and administrative issues, in order that Italian and Serbian Railways are able to complete this project, in partnership. Initial results from The Commission can be expected at the beginning of this summer.
Morreti said, that modern multi-system electro-motor trains could operate on this route, which would run in the same composition from Belgrade to Venice. Introducing the most modern signaling and safety system on this route was also discussed. This combined would make passenger rail travel between Serbia and Northern Italy markedly better and faster than it is now.
Director General of “Serbian Railways” Milovan Markovic and his Deputy of Infrastructure and Transportation Predrag Jankovic, presented to the delegation of Italian State Railways the current condition of railway infrastructure in Serbia and opportunities for fulfilling of this project, especially when the technical condition of the railroad on Corridor 10 is in question. It was highlighted, that the process of modernization of Serbian railways has been initiated. It was also mentioned, that previous cooperation between Serbian and Italian Railways in freight traffic was extremely good, especially for the needs of transportation of “Fiat” and “Zastava”, and it`s expected that this cooperation in passenger traffic shall improve markedly.
Dejan Lasica, Assistant Minister of Infrastructure, who is also in charge of railway traffic, presented all the procedures, obligations and legal options for this project to be fulfilled, to the partners from Italy, and further pointed out that the Ministry supports this kind of cooperation between both railways.