HŽ Infrastruktura is very pleased that the construction of the new railway line has finally begun, which will connect Sv. Ivan Žabno in the Koprivnica-Križevci County and Gradec in the Zagreb County.
The fact that this is the first new railway line being built after 50 years should certainly encourage us, but the question arises whether in about ten years we will conclude that this line is unprofitable and that one day a thicket could grow up next to it again, just like the diligent workers of Jet-Set are clearing these days.
Just four days before the start of the works, HŽ sent a kind of ‘greeting’ – 12 out of 16 direct trains that operated between Bjelovar and Zagreb were canceled. The reason: unprofitability. And the consolation should be that these trains will be returned when the 12.2 kilometers of the line are built.
It is not excluded, as former ORaH MP Mladen Novak believes, that this is a political decision of the Kukuriku coalition. However, HŽ Infrastruktura notes that this project has been considered since 2003. They say that at that time, the resolution of property-legal relations and the collection of other paperwork began, but there were no funds to start this project. Therefore, the realization of the project has been prolonged, and when Croatia joined the EU, it was able to utilize funds from the mentioned funds and, as one source who wished to remain anonymous said, due to such a long passage of time (12 years), this was the best-prepared project and ‘it would be a shame if it were not utilized.’
The entire text can be read in the new issue of Lider.
