Sarajevo-Belgrade Train Back on Track

A train dispatcher signals to the driver to start the Sarajevo-Belgrade train

Standing on platform 1 of the Sarajevo railway station on Sunday, Pantelija Miholjcic could not hide his emotions as a grimy train took off for Belgrade for the first time since Bosnia's brutal wars broke direct rail communication between the two capitals nearly 18 years ago.

"My heart is full, people need to restore old links and this train can help them do that," the 74-year-old retired train driver told Balkan Insight.

Miholjcic, who drove the Sarajevo-Belgrade express for a better part of his life, retired just months before the breakout of the 1990s wars that stopped the trains in their tracks.

The three-carriage train that left the Sarajevo railway station on Sunday was no match for the fancy pre-war express that rode the line, Miholjcici said, adding that he hopes to live long enough to "see the golden times restored."

"Those were the days. Before the war, three fifteen-carriage trains all packed with people used to leave Sarajevo for Belgrade each day," his former colleague and friend Hondo Bego said.

"I still remember how cheerful it was as all those people mingled in the restaurant car," added Bego who spent 40 years working as a conductor on the line.

Only some ten people rode on the first post-war train from Sarajevo to Belgrade, but rail transport manager Ifet Sokolovic said he was confident the number of passengers would soon grow.

“Ten passengers is a lot for the first ride, I remember we had only one passenger on our first direct train to Budapest," Sokolovic said. 

Unlike in the old times, when Bosnia and Serbia were part of the Yugoslav Federation and the ride between their two capitals took six hours, the train that also travels through another former Yugoslav republic – Croatia - will now have to cross two borders extending the travel time by two hours.

However, Slobodanka Nikic, who was returning home to Belgrade after her first visit to Sarajevo in years, said that nothing, not even an air flight, could compare to traveling by train.

"I always chose trains, because you can walk around, you can meet people," the 53-year-old told Balkan Insight.

"It was great to be back in Sarajevo, especially since I got the chance to return to Belgrade on the first direct train since the war," Nikic said: “Now it will be easier to visit Sarajevo more often."

Despite political tensions that linger between Sarajevo and Belgrade 14 years since the end of the war, Pantelija Miholjcic said the restored train line between the two capitals could help "normal people to get their lives back on track."

"Ordinary people have started moving on, it is now politicians who need to come back to their senses," he said.