Within the MULTIAPPRO project, one of the tasks is the promotion of intermodality. Accordingly, the external expert of Port of Bar, Sanja Bojić, Associate Professor, has prepared a paper on the topic “Intermodality – Serbia as the hinterland of the Port of Bar”. You can find out more about the mentioned paper in the following text, and you can download the complete text from this link “Intermodality – Serbia as the hinterland of the Port of Bar”.

Geographical position and transport network of Serbia

Serbia is a landlocked country situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, in the middle of three geo-political entities: Danube macro-region, Adriatic-Ionian macro-region and Western Balkan 6 initiative. By analyzing and assessing the geostrategic and geopolitical comparative advantages of the Republic of Serbia in the wider European area, the main advantage of the Republic of Serbia is being the traffic connection of Western and Central Europe with Southeastern Europe and the Middle East, as well as the connection of Central European countries – the Middle Danube towards the South Adriatic, the Aegean and the Black Sea, or the Mediterranean.

Serbia is crossed by the two main transport corridors recognized as Pan-European Corridors X and VII. According to the European Union TEN-T classification and latest indicative extension of TEN-T network to Western Balkan, former Pan-European corridors are replaced by branches of Orient/East-Med Corridor and Mediterranean corridor as shown at following pictures.

Figure 1. Indicative extension of TEN-T network to Western Balkan [1]

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Based on the data received from the Customs Administration of Serbia, the total number of  TEU in Serbian export and import, in the reviewed period from 2015 – 2017 is presented in the Figure 2.

Figure 4. Total container flows of Serbia, in TEU, from 2015 to 2017 [10]

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The level of container export by the statistical regions of Serbia is presented in Figure 3.

Figure 5. Container export by the statistical regions of Serbia, in TEU, from 2015 to 2017 [10]

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Status Quo of the Port of Bar intermodal connection to Serbia

Unfortunately, at the moment, share of the intermodal transport in Montenegro is low in the overall transport performance. Infrastructure necessary for supporting intermodality (such as port connections to the rail network and intermodal stations for rail – road combined transport) is missing. This influences the share of the railway transport in the country’s intermodal transport operations, which are dominated by road freight carriers. The Port of Bar is a great starting point that is designed to have access to all main national roads and railways. Current state of that infrastructure is outdated and is not in a good condition. There are some opportunities in planned investment in transport infrastructures on national level.

However, the Transport Development Strategy of Montenegro recognized the need for railway reconstruction. A great number of upgrades of Montenegrin railways is underway or is in the planning stage. Priority is given to main railway corridors for passenger and freight transport, between Bar, Podgorica and Bijelo Polje (border with Serbia). Plans for upgrades of other railway corridors with Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina are in preparation, although their realization is not expected before 2035. [16]

Since 2006, 123.1 million Euro was invested in rehabilitation and modernization of Montenegro railway infrastructure. Over 48% of Montenegro’s rail infrastructure has been rehabilitated in the recent years and overhauling work on remaining segments is either ongoing or planned. Public rail network is almost fully electrified (225 km out of 250 km or 90%), which is significantly higher than the EU average, which is 52%. Maximum allowable speeds remain low and range between 50 km/h and 100 km/h. The fact is that the railway has single rail lines reduces its transporting and pass-through capacities. [16]

With respect to the Vrbnica-Bar line, so far, its northern part has been rehabilitated: Vrbnica-Kolašin (53.2 km), with additionally contracted overhaul of Kolašin-Kos (10.9 km) and Kos-Trebešica (7.3 km, with secured financing) for a maximum speed of 75-80 km / h. Remaining works include the general overhaul of the line’s remaining 96 km (Trebešica-Bar), preparation of the main project for rehabilitation of existing signalling in Podgorica station and concrete bridges (a total of 91 bridges), preparation of the main reconstruction and rehabilitation project for 106 tunnels, procurement of equipment for maintenance of railway infrastructure, (14 steel bridges, 91 concrete bridge, 12 slopes and landslides in a total length of 3km), reconstruction of the track and facilities at three stations, reconstruction of the existing signalling and contact lines along the line and modernization of the security system and video surveillance. The estimated duration of the project is 15 years. There is technical documentation for most of the phases of the project for the preparation of the tender or implementation of the tender procedure.[16]

With rehabilitation and reconstruction of Montenegrin railways, due to its direct connection to Port of Bar and main economic centers in Montenegro, increase in overall economic activities could be expected, as well as significant increase of the transit container flows towards Serbia. Planned actions will improve rail network capacity, travel times and reliability.

Conclusions regarding bottlenecks and potentials for further integration of the Port of Bar and Serbia as its hinterland

Based on the analysis of the existing infrastructure, existing intermodal services as well as intensity and origin and destination of the cargo flows in Serbia, the SWOT analysis for further integration of the Port of Bar and Serbia as its hinterland has been performed (Table 3).

Table 3. SWOT analysis of the hinterland connection of the Port of Bar with Serbia