The regime's project of the century with a thousand flaws  

Three years after it was put into service, travel on the high-speed railway has become slower and slower, and some damage could even endanger the lives of passengers. The acting director of Infrastructure has informed the company responsible for supervision and the relevant ministry about this. No one from the top of the government has spoken out publicly about this, as if the canopy of the station in Novi Sad had not recently collapsed.

 

In reality, the state of the railway infrastructure poses an incomparably greater danger than the alleged bombs, which last Friday, just a day before the announced protests in Belgrade on March 15, due to which rail traffic was suspended throughout the country, for Srbijavoz and its passengers. And above all, the high-speed railway from Belgrade to Novi Sad, which was first driven by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban three years ago, on March 19, 2022. "You live for this, this is history for us," said Vučić, while then-Prime Minister Ana Brnabić claimed that "Serbia is now Western Europe."

 

Only three years later, it would turn out that this “project of the century”, which the government used extensively for propaganda purposes, had thousands of flaws, some of which could even be life-threatening for passengers. This is supported by numerous irregularities, which were pointed out by the acting director of the Serbian Railway Infrastructure, Vladimir Maksimović, nine days before the most massive protests in the history of Serbia. The Serbian government had appointed him to this position three months earlier, replacing Jelena Tanasković, who was under house arrest for the collapse of the canopy of the Novi Sad Railway Station, under whose weight 15 people were killed and two seriously injured on November 1.

 

Radar reveals that on March 6, Maksimović sent a letter to the Utiber Project Bureau, which was engaged to supervise the high-speed railway from the Prokop station in Belgrade to Novi Sad. In it, the new acting director The Director of Infrastructure states that Utiber should order the contractors to eliminate all the observed deficiencies, which are exhaustively listed on as many as 135 pages in a special report, which Radar has had access to. For some of the deficiencies, it literally says: "They need to be removed urgently, because they endanger the lives of passengers." Both documents have also been forwarded to the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure.

Trains are not the problem, but the railway is

The Ministry of Infrastructure is demanding that Utiber order two Chinese and one Russian company, which built the railway, to eliminate all defects. The Serbian government has entrusted the construction of the first section from Prokop to Stara Pazova to China Railway International and China Communication Construction Company, and the second, from Stara Pazova to Novi Sad, to the Russian RŽD International.

Although Vučić claimed in October 2021, when the first Stadler train was delivered to Serbian Railways, that it would travel at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour and that it would "arrive in half an hour" from Belgrade to Novi Sad, two weeks ago it became clear that the trains are not the problem, but that the railway itself does not allow for such speeds. And it is also much more dangerous than the alleged bombs, which caused the trains to not run from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon, with Srbijavoz explaining that they decided to do so "in order to protect the lives of passengers and train crews."

 

Whether they will be so concerned when they realize that their trains are cruising on an unsafe railway, which cost around $935 million to build, remains to be seen. On the other hand, when they learn about all its shortcomings, it is unlikely that passengers will be as happy as Ana Brnabić, who said on the first anniversary of the railway's opening that she "most often heard the comment from people who ride the "falcon" that they feel like they are not in Serbia, but we are, in the new Serbia". Unfortunately, the poor quality and numerous shortcomings are more a consequence of the old practice of the current authorities.

 

The Utiber project office and the relevant ministry, along with the letter ("Submission of investor's objections to the work carried out on the Belgrade Center - Stara Pazova and Stara Pazova - Novi Sad sections"), signed by Vladimir Maksimović, were also submitted a special 135-page annex ("Submission of a consolidated list of shortcomings on the Belgrade Center - Novi Sad high-speed railway section"). It states, among other things, that the railway project documentation is not in order, that "the contractors on the first section did not submit the As-Built Project, but only the Execution Project", while "the contractors on the second section submitted the As-Built Project by verifying the Execution Project", with the proviso that there are many discrepancies between these projects and they are precisely listed. Perhaps under normal circumstances these discrepancies would not be so worrying, but in a country where a canopy collapsed, killing 15 and seriously injuring two people, it is difficult to understand that these discrepancies have not been resolved, even though both sections were put into service exactly three years ago.

Trains run day and night, without project documentation

In addition, the Infrastructure Department first sent the contractor, Russian RŽD International, a request to submit the Project of the completed facility for the section from Stara Pazova to Novi Sad in January 2023, and then a year later, on January 24, 2024, but it has not received it to this day. The state-owned enterprise has not received such a project from the Chinese company that is engaged as a contractor for the section of the high-speed railway from Zemun to Stara Pazova. Despite everything, trains run on that railway, although it is far from the Podlugovi station from Zdravko Ćolić's poem, day and night... Just as the Railway Station in Novi Sad was ceremonially opened to traffic in the presence of numerous state

guests, although formally it was a construction site, which no one, except employees, was allowed to approach.

 

 

The relationship between the supervision and the contractor towards the railway, which the authorities claimed would allow trains to roar along at 200 km/h, is sufficiently eloquent, stating that no one has appeared at the control centre in Topčider and at the facilities in Zemun, Stara Pazova and Batajnica to rectify the observed deficiencies. “Commissions only come out, state the facts and nothing happens,” the report says, which is neither signed nor stamped.

 

The document also states that during a regular inspection “deficiencies were observed in the monobloc cast manganese cores of the switches, which could affect the safe operation of railway traffic,” and all this is supported by photographs of the damaged switches, to which an entire chapter is dedicated. The company in charge of supervision is particularly drawn to the deficiencies observed at three switches each in Batajnica and Sremski Karlovci and two in Nova Pazova. On page 70 of the supplement, there is a photo of a report from August 2023 on defects in the switches, signed by the responsible civil engineer from the Novi Sad-based company ZGOP. This document was therefore written more than a year and a half ago, and the defects observed had not been eliminated by the beginning of March this year.

 

"Visible damage" on the New Railway Bridge in Belgrade

The report lists "visible damage" on the new railway, the "Hajdin Bridge", in several places, which it also states "may affect the safe operation of railway traffic". Among other things, on page 93 of the report is a memorandum report by the Vossloh Min switches company on the damage to the switches on the left track of the railway from Prokop to Novi Beograd. It was written on November 18, 2024, two and a half weeks after the collapse of the canopy in Novi Sad, and the fact that it is part of the documentation sent to the supervision confirms that this damage has not yet been repaired.

It is therefore not surprising that the expansion devices are concluded to "pose a serious safety risk to rail traffic" and that "vertical rail movements and damage to the tongues can lead to destabilization of the track and endanger vehicles and passengers". In addition, on one of them, on the "Hajdin Bridge", a "horizontal crack longer than 14 centimeters, approximately 50-60 centimeters from the tip of the tongue, which may affect the safety of rail traffic", was observed, while on the other "a hammer-shaped bolt, which is complete with a hexagonal nut and a single elastic washer, which secures the tongue to the side of the slider, broke (torn)", and the manufacturer's instructions "do not define how to replace it".

 

It is more than obvious that the "Hajdin Bridge" is not well maintained. Given that the CIP prepared a study on the investment maintenance of the equipment on that bridge in March 2019, the authorities are asking whether all or only some of the works were carried out according to that study. For the second bridge, at the 52nd kilometer of the railway, it is stated that "the connection of the steel columns with the foundations was not carried out according to the main design, no stiffeners were made, no counter-threads or self-locking nuts were installed, the anchors were broken, the holes in the bearing plates have a larger gap...". On the other hand, gravel is collapsing on the underpass on Venizelisova Street in Belgrade.

 

Numerous complaints about all station buildings, from Prokop to Petrovaradin

It is noticeable that the report mentions almost all station buildings along the line, except for the one in Novi Sad, which, after the demolition of the canopy, was closed until it was determined whether it was also damaged, so trains are only operating as far as Petrovaradin. The Utiber design bureau, and through it the contractors, are informed that numerous complaints have been noted regarding the work carried out on station buildings, platforms, facilities and underpasses, from Prokop, via Zemun, Altina, Novi Beograd, Kamendin, Tošin bunar, Bežanijska kosa, Batajnica, Stara i Nova Pazova, Inđija, Beška, Čortnovaci, Karlovački vinograd and Sremski Karlovaci to Petrovaradin.

 

 

Among other things, it warns that there is a risk of a detached sheet metal strip falling on the overhang on the track in Stara Pazova, that the platform overhang in Novi Beograd needs to be thoroughly inspected, because it is visible to the naked eye that the screws that secure its supports are missing, with these remarks also illustrated by photographs. The overhang in Batajnica is missing panels, while traces of rust have been observed on the structures of the platform overhangs in Sremski Karlovci and Petrovaradin. The extent of the negligence is also evidenced by the fact that the injection elements have not been removed from the stairs of the underpass in Petrovaradin, so the Railway Infrastructure says that they must be "removed urgently, because they endanger the lives of passengers".

 

At the very beginning of the article, 14 objections are listed regarding the installed IT equipment. In particular, it is pointed out that it is necessary for the contractor to submit a list of authorized companies for technical support and maintenance, as well as a specification of the set of spare parts for all installed systems and devices. "For certain devices, which have so far failed and/or proven to be unreliable, it is necessary for the contractor to hand over a certain number of spare devices to the Railway Infrastructure, so that the replacement is as fast as possible and so that there is no waiting for long procurement and deliveries," the article states. At the same time, the investor complains that at certain locations, servers and other computer equipment are not adequately protected and that they can be easily accessed by unauthorized persons?!

 

A large number of objections relate to security systems, for automatic detection, notification and extinguishing of fires, video surveillance, fire-fighting equipment and means, and access control. Among other things, the investor complains that he was not even provided with the main design of the completed fire protection facility, and then lists several stops in Belgrade, Čortanovci and Inđija and tunnels near Bežanijska kosa and Čortanovci, in which fire extinguishers are not connected to the fire extinguishing system.

 

The automatic fire detection and alarm centers at stations and tunnels are not functioning either

In addition, there are dozens, even hundreds of errors and shortcomings in the automatic fire detection and alarm centers at stations in Belgrade, Zemun Polje, Batajnica, Čortanovci, Stara and Nova Pazova, Inđija, Beška, Karlovačke vinograd, Sremski Karlovci and Petrovaradin, as well as at the entrance and exit of the tunnel at Bežanijska kosa and Čortanovci, for which the commission concluded on February 9, 2023, "that the fire dampers are not in functional condition, nor connected to the electrical power supply and fire extinguishing system".

 

Just three years earlier, while touring the viaduct and tunnel at Čortanovci, Vučić stated that it was "universe" compared to the previous railway. The only thing is that some very important safety systems have in the meantime clearly been "lost in space".

 

Part of the appendix is a detailed table with a list of missing or faulty track markings, and the document also indicates where all security cameras are not working, that the technical acceptance of the technical protection system has not been carried out, that various documents are missing, from instructions for operating individual devices to records of professional supervision, training and technical acceptance.

Aside from the fact that the initial fire extinguishing devices were not placed in the places provided for by the main fire protection project on the entire railway line and that empty boxes were placed in the rooms where sand for extinguishing fires should be. Or the fact that, as it is stated, the contractors damaged and then "inadequately and unprofessionally temporarily enabled" electrical cables and that some electrical power facilities are leaking. The list of shortcomings of the "project of the century" would not be complete without 119 irregularities in telecommunications systems, 26 deficiencies in signaling and safety devices...

The list of complaints about the condition of the railway is much longer. This makes the answers of Srbijavoz to the Inquiry Commission that is determining who is responsible for the collapse of the guardrail all the more strange. It was interested in whether it was true that due to the poor quality of the newly built railway, serious vibrations occur at higher speeds and that electronic devices on the locomotives fail because of this, whether the drivers reported the problem and the only reaction was an instruction to reduce speed, which is why it now takes longer to travel to Petrovaradin than before to Novi Sad, whether anything has been done to eliminate the technical problems (if any), whether a complaint has been filed about the quality of the railway, because the warranty period is soon to expire, and whether traffic was suspended on March 15 due to the expected extremely large number of passengers, whose load the railway might not be able to withstand.

 

Srbijavoz responded that none of the aforementioned allegations are true, with the proviso that the Infrastructure is responsible for the technical details. It was she who confirmed with her documents that the Inquiry Commission's questions were not without foundation, and after Radar's writing, they would no longer be a secret. It was partially dispelled in January, when the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad published a letter from an engineer from Infrastructure dated March 11, 2024, in which the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Infrastructure proposed a joint meeting to Anita Dimoski, who was responsible for the project, specifically about the switches and problems with cast hearts, and in the attachment she also provided her with the minutes of the meetings from December 2023, which listed numerous damages. In the meantime, their number has only increased. For now, Infrastructure has made a "list", but someone would finally have to roll up their sleeves and fix the defects. Otherwise, high-speed rail travel will be slower and slower, and those trips will be more and more dangerous.

 

Like most facilities in the Western Balkans region in which Chinese companies participated, the Belgrade-Novi Sad high-speed railway has significant shortcomings that could endanger the lives of passengers. Despite warnings from the competent authorities responsible for controlling the railway in 2023 and 2024, the identified shortcomings have still not been removed, and the railway is still in use.
Two Chinese and one Russian companies that participated in the construction of the railway also failed to submit detailed designs to the competent state-owned enterprises in Serbia. The identified shortcomings and ignoring the requests of state institutions when it comes to the necessary documentation are the best evidence of the status enjoyed by Chinese companies in Serbia, as well as in other Western Balkan countries. The interests of Chinese companies are often placed above applicable laws and the interests of citizens who, ultimately, repay the loans used to build overpaid and poor-quality infrastructure projects.
The consequences of poorly executed projects in which Chinese companies participated are best illustrated by the collapse of a canopy in Novi Sad, which killed 16 people and injured several others. Unfortunately, to this day, there is no information on whether and to what extent the Chinese company that participated in the construction of the project will be held responsible for this tragedy.