January the 23rd, 2026 – Croatia is set to get a brand new railway line in an enormous investment totalling 600-700 million euros. The trains that will run along it will go at speeds of 160 kmh.
As Sinisa Malus/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the location permit for the construction of the second track of the new lowland railway route through Karlovac is expected in 2027, it was revealed at a meeting of representatives of the City of Karlovac and the state-owned company HŽ Infrastruktura (Infrastructure) with designers recently.
As announced by the Karlovac City Administration, the aforementioned meeting was attended by representatives of all city services, Croatian Roads (Hrvatske ceste), the project manager from HŽ Infrastruktura Tomislav Tomić and the deputy project manager for the construction of the lowland railway between Karlovac and Oštarija Ljiljana Berc.
Tomić presented the conceptual design of the new lowland railway route through Karlovac. He was assisted in this by designers Vedran Pedišić and Stipe Gašpar, as authors of the awarded work, as well as by designer Ana Smolić.
The project for Croatia to get a brand new railway line as part of this investment includes the construction of a four-kilometre line from the Kupa Bridge to the Mostanja junction, with the railway being divided into two sections in that section, a new route towards Oštarije and a reconstruction of the existing track towards Duga Resa.
“The trains that would travel along the new route would reach speeds of 120 to 160 kilometres per hour, which would significantly improve the efficiency and safety of traffic,” they stated from the administration of the City of Karlovac.
A separate discussion, as announced, was held on the solution to the Karlovac Centre stop and the integration of railway infrastructure into the city area. It was concluded that “all open issues” would be resolved within a month and that the City of Karlovac would hand over the project and planning documentation. It was also revealed that HŽ Infrastruktura would request additional statements from all involved stakeholders.
Finally, an agreement will be signed between the City of Karlovac and HŽ Infrastruktura on further cooperation in the implementation of projects related to the lowland railway. This includes an underground and above-ground garage in Sarajevska, the reconstruction of the Karlovac Bus Station, the construction of a crossing under the D1 state road and the solution for the crossing under the current and future railway from Mažuranićeva obala to the Dubovac district with a new pedestrian and bicycle passage under the bridges. It was stated that the construction of the new track is planned on pillars with overpasses, bridges and retaining walls, and that the existing track will remain in operation during construction. It was also noted that the existing track will be reconstructed after the new track is put into service.
“The estimated value of the investment on the section from Karlovac to Skrad stands between 600 and 700 million euros, and we plan to finance the project using EU funds,” the city administration reported. Croatia getting a new railway line as part of a large investment is of the utmost importance to overhauling not only the rail connections of the country, but its absolutely dire reputation. This future lowland railway is one of the key infrastructure projects that will improve Croatia’s connectivity in the long term and strengthen the role of the Port of Rijeka in terms of wider European traffic.
Last year, Professors Davor Dujak from the Osijek Faculty of Economics and Borna Debelić from the Rijeka Faculty of Maritime Affairs presented the study “Economic Impacts of the Port of Rijeka”. The study delved deeper into the impact the port could have on the Croatian economy as a whole by 2040. Naturally, this implies the assumption of the opening of the “highly efficient” Rijeka-Zagreb railway line by 2035. This amount includes revenues generated from the port’s activities directly, indirectly and induced, through increased income of employees and suppliers.
According to an optimistic scenario, which assumes the completion of the double-track Zagreb-Rijeka lowland railway by 2032, the Port of Rijeka could generate around five times more economic activity than currently, i.e. 3.3 billion euros and 8,600 jobs in the port.
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