Belgrade Centre railway station

Belgrade Centre railway station
Prokop
Железничка станица Београд Центар
Belgrade Centre railway station
Location Prokupačka St.
Savski Venac, Belgrade
Serbia
Coordinates 44°47′37″N 20°27′14″E / 44.7936°N 20.4539°E / 44.7936; 20.4539Coordinates: 44°47′37″N 20°27′14″E / 44.7936°N 20.4539°E / 44.7936; 20.4539
Owned by Serbian Railways
Platforms 5 operational
(6 planned + 2 metro platforms planned)
Tracks 8 operational
(10 planned + 2 metro tracks planned)
Construction
Structure type At-grade
History
Opened 1974 (1974) (Partially)
10 December 2017 (2017-12-10) (Main national)
1 July 2018 (2018-07-01) (Central)
Location
Belgrade Centre railway station
Prokop
Location within Belgrade

The Belgrade Centre railway station (Serbian: Железничка станица Београд Центар), colloquially known as Prokop (Serbian: Прокоп), is the new central railway station in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The station is located in the Belgrade municipality of Savski Venac. Although unfinished, it serves as de facto main railway station of the city, after replacing the old main station in Sava amfiteatre.[1]

The unsuccessful, decades-long attempted construction of the new central railway station of Belgrade was hampered by a lack of funding to finish adjoining 14 km of tunnels, several railway bridges including the New Railroad Bridge across the Sava river, a new road network connecting to the city and technical installations.

Belgrade Centre station was opened on 26 January 2016,[2] serving two daily trains to Novi Sad, as well as Belgrade commuter railways.[3] Following gradual re-routing, it gained its current role on 1 July 2018.

Construction

History

The ill-fated construction of the new railway station which was supposed to replace the old one in Savamala was to last for decades. Originally, in the late 1960s, it was supposed to be constructed near the present interchange of Autokomanda, but the idea was suddenly dropped, and one of the major architectural authorities at the time, Branko Žeželj, picked Prokop instead, which ultimately left the Autokomanda interchange unfinished—the exit in the Niš direction was only finished in 2007. Council for Urbanism drafted the projected construction of the new railway station in 1971. The project was monumental and expensive, without a precedent in Yugoslavia. It was envisioned to be "large enough for the entire 21st century" with 10,000 commuters per. hour Because of all that, including the unrealistic deadline of only 18 months, the Council's session after which the plan was given the green light, was very turbulent and lasted for 7.5 hours. In 1974 the design project was finished and construction began on 8 October 1977.[4][5] The station building was planned to have a bird-shaped roof. The station was planned with 8 platforms and 11 tracks.[6]

Deadline for completion was 1 May 1979, but the rapidly deteriorating economic situation in Yugoslavia at the time slowed construction and the project was halted in 1980. In May 1984, the notion of abandoning the project altogether, due to high costs, was officially considered for the first time. Construction resumed in 1990 and in the next several years was stopped and restarted several times. The project itself was simplified. In 1996 a new contract was signed with the Energoprojekt company. The President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević and Prime Minister Mirko Marjanović officially opened the construction of the concrete roof slab on 7 July 1996, which was for the most part finished in 1999, but the building was halted again due to the NATO bombing of Serbia and lack of funds.[4][5][6]

In 2005 an international competition was held to find the strategic partner who would finish the station and acquire rights to build and sell commercial facilities. The Hungarian company TriGranit was chosen, but in 2008 TriGranit was dismissed and the contract with Energoprojekt from 1996 was reactivated. Energoprojekt came second on the public bidding but still was chosen. As the works were to last for 14 months, 2010 was set as the final deadline, but there was no progress due to the lack of funds. Also, this project excluded the construction of the commercial area.[6] In 2012, a €25.8 million loan was granted by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, and on 3 December 2014 work was resumed, with the Energoprojekt as the lead company of the construction consortium, being chosen again after the bidding. The work was expected to be completed in 14 months,[4][5] and the station was indeed officially opened on 26 January 2016 by the prime minister Aleksandar Vučić. However, the new station was not used to capacity and was basically still just one of a dozen secondary stations in Belgrade.

On 10 December 2017 all but three lines of the domestic transport were transferred from the Main station to Prokop. International trains continued using the Main station, and that due to the fact that, by this time, Belgrade Centre is still not completed. In December 2017, the station had no station building or any commercial facilities, two tracks were still not finished as well as the roof above them, the road connections to the rest of the city are only half completed, etc. Ministry of construction estimated that, if the funds were granted, the entire work could be finished in two years.[7]

An additional problem which appeared is that Prokop has no facilities for loading and unloading cars from the auto trains, nor was ever planned to have one. Still, in January 2018 it was announced that the old station will be completely closed for traffic on 1 July 2018, even though none of the projects needed for a complete removal of the railway traffic are finished. The Prokop is incomplete, a projected main goods station in Zemun is not being adapted at all while there is even no project on Belgrade railway beltway. A series of temporary solutions will have to be applied, including a defunct and deteriorated Topčider railway station, which will be revitalized and adapted for auto trains. The major flaw remains a bad public transportation connection (only one tram line, No. 3), so the railway company asked officially for this problem to be solved. It was also announced in January 2018 that the official deadline for the construction of the station building in Prokop is twe years, however there are no funds for it at the moment. A second part of the Kuwaiti loan (€50 million) is still not approved and the needed public procurements won't be finished till the end of 2018. Central freight station in Zemun also have a deadline of twe years, but the works are scheduled to start at the end of 2018. This means that the planned Belgrade railway junction won't be finished before 2021, at best. However, minister for transportation, Zorana Mihajlović, in December 2017 gave conflicting deadlines. She said that the station building in Prokop will be built from April 2018 to April 2019 and that freight station Zemun should be finished by the end of 2018.[8][9]

Only the access road from the direction of the Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra Karađorđevića was finished in 2018. The station still lacks a 9,000 m2 (97,000 sq ft) of roof and the platforms beneath it, the building itself and the access road to the highway. The bidding for the roof slab failed and it was estimated that addition €50 million were needed for the completion.[6] In June 2018 it was estimated that in the best case scenario Prokop will become fully functional station, will all the necessary and supporting services, only by 2021.[10]

Controversies

In late 1990s, instigated by the first lady, Mirjana Marković, an initiative was started to build a Chinese commercial centre in Prokop, which was to enhance the economic cooperation and trade between China and Serbia.[5]

Supervisor Dragan Dobrašinović, who reported to the Financial Board of the National Assembly of Serbia, said that procedures for the 2014 reconstruction were "distinctively political" due to the pushing of the Belgrade Waterfront project. He also pointed out that the projected price was inflated by over 5.5 million euros, as the estimate was 20.25 million and the loan was 25.8 million euros. The Assembly's Board accepted Dobrašinović's report, but dismissed him and no legal proceedings followed.[4]

When it was announced that the Kuwaitis would grant the loan, Serbian authorities published a computer model of what the future station building would look like. It turned out to be a picture of the Hong Kong's West Kowloon Terminus, set against Belgrade as a background. The 2009 project which is still not completed, is the work of the Aedas company and architect Andrew Bromberg who personally reacted to the plagiarism.[11]

Criticism

The construction of the Belgrade Waterfront and track removal in Savamala and apparent pressure to finish the work before the expiration of the deadline, contributed to the hastily done job. Basically, no other facilities were built except for the tracks. The roof was unfinished and due to rain and wind the platforms on the periphery are covered in water. Access roads were not completed either and Prokop is generally badly connected with other parts of Belgrade.[12]

Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and a public transportation expert, Vukan Vučić labeled Prokop as the "most disastrous error of the Belgrade transportation". He asserted that Prokop, in functional terms, is not a station at all and that, though it has been named Belgrade Center, is actually further from the city's center than the old station was. He added that the location is neglected, desperately bad choice and topographically inaccessible from all sides. As a result, commuters need almost 20 minutes to leave the station upon their arrival and have to travel for 3 to 4 km (1.9 to 2.5 mi) to downtown to reach other public transportation routes as Prokop itself is not interconnected. Another member of the Academy, transportation engineer Dušan Teodorović also criticized the project.[13] As nothing of the planned infrastructure hasn't been built – urbanization and development of the neighborhood, numerous commercial objects, hotels, excellect commuting connections, two metro lines, taxi station – Vučić maintains that the isolation of the location will directly bring to the further decrease in the number of railway passengers.[14]

Those who participated in the planning of the station maintain that Prokop was the best solution and that problem is that other parts of the plan weren't done or have been dropped completely. They say that the idea was to have only transient stations in the city and not the main, end station. Some of the missing infrastructure which they named, and which are considered megalomaniacal to begin with by the critics, include three additional railway stations (new or expanded: New Belgrade, Zemun, South), two additional bus stations (South, East) and lengthening and widening of the Deligradska Street from its current end at the highway, including the demolition of the urbanized hill of Maleško Brdo, east of Prokop.[15]

Despite numerous major drawbacks of the station, minister Mihajlović in July 2018 stated that the priority in Prokop are "elevators and escalators".[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Polazak: Prokop postaje glavna stanice Beograda
  2. ↑ "Vucic opens Prokop railway station after 40 years". Tanjug. 26 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "Vučić otvorio "Prokop" posle 40 godina gradnje: Cela stanica gotova 2018". Blic. 26 January 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Nikola Belić (11 February 2016). "Osam koloseka u Prokopu biće otvoreno u januaru iduće godine" (in Serbian). Politika. p. 17.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Marko Lakić (17 October 2008). "Još jedan rok za Prokop". Politika (in Serbian). p. 13.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Dejan Aleksić (8 July 2018). "Železnica u prestonici - Novi Beogradski čvor nije samo "Prokop"" [Railway in the capital - New Belgrade junction is not only Prokop]. Politika (in Serbian).
  7. ↑ Dejan Aleksić (9 December 2017). ""Prokop" postaje glavna stanica za domaće polaske" ["Prokop" becomes the main station for the domestic routes]. Politika (in Serbian). p. 15.
  8. ↑ Dejan Aleksić (16 January 2018). "Posle 134 godine bez vozova u Savskom amfiteatru" [No more trains in Sava amphitheater after 134 years]. Politika (in Serbian). pp. 01 & 16.
  9. ↑ Beta (11 January 2018). "Prokop nema prilaz za auto-voz, sređuje se stanica Topčider" [Prokop has no access for the auto train, Topčider station is being adapted] (in Serbian). N1.
  10. ↑ G.Vlaović (21 June 2018). "Građani će se zbog Arapa mučiti da dođu do voza" [Because of the Arabs, citizens will have hard time reaching the train] (in Serbian). Danas.
  11. ↑ Andrew Bromberg (22 February 2016). "Otkriven plagijat: Srpski Prokop već postoji u Hongkongu" (in Serbian). Newsweek Serbia.
  12. ↑ Momčilo Petrović (3 February 2016). "Vučićeva promaja: samo pola sata od otvaranja, Prokop je ponovo postao samo rupa u brdu" (in Serbian). Newsweek Serbia.
  13. ↑ A.Popović (18 April 2018). "Prokop najkatastrofalnija greška saobraćaja u Beogradu" [Prokop (is) the most disastrous error of the Belgrade transportation]. Danas (in Serbian).
  14. ↑ Dejan Aleksić, Daliborka Mučibabić (18 April 2018). "Plan za metro u interesu putnika, a ne investitora" [Plan for the metro (should be) in the interest of the passengers, not of the investors]. Politika (in Serbian). p. 14.
  15. ↑ A.Popović (24 April 2018). "Nezavršena infrastruktura baca senku na Prokop" [Incomplete infrastructure casts a shadow over Prokop] (in Serbian). Danas.
  16. ↑ Dejan Aleksić (4 July 2018). "Pruga u istoriju, opasne materije kroz tunele" [Railway into history, hazardous materials into tunnels]. Politika (in Serbian).
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