As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, after more than thirty years, a direct seasonal train line to Split and Sibenik from continental cities has been introduced. Croatian Railways (HZ) announced some details, referring to affordable trips and the fact that ”fast” overnight trains will run along this line. The price of a return ticket is about 300 kuna.
The first train of the season left a couple of days ago for Split, and the journey lasts thirteen hours.
The train left Osijek at 20:00 and went via Nasice, Virovitica and Bjelovar. It was joined in Zagreb by wagons from Vinkovci. If you decide to travel on the new direct Osijek-Split train then you’ll need to travel about half an hour longer. Croatian Railways have made sure that the passengers who decide to take this night train have a place to sleep and eat, meaning the train boasts a restaurant.
Slavonians are happy that after more than thirty years, they will once again be able to travel on a direct Osijek-Split train line. However, it would be much better if the trip were a little shorter, which is difficult to expect due to the state of the tracks at the moment. The first seasonal night train from Osijek and Vinkovci to Split arrived on Saturday at the Split railway station 83 minutes late due to technical difficulties in Zagreb, and about three hundred passengers eventually disembarked.
The train will run from Osijek and Vinkovci to Dalmatia every day until August the 29th, 2022.
“The last direct Osijek-Split train ran back in the nineties, and with this project we tried to connect the whole of continental Croatia again. That’s how we connected all five Slavonian counties to Dalmatia and enabled people to travel by rail in this way,” said Zeljko Ukic, President of the Board of HZ Putnicki Prijevoz/Croatian Railways Passenger Transport.
Passengers heading down from Eastern Croatia to Split left from two locations – on Friday evening at 20:00 from Osijek and also from Vinkovci. They were then transported via Bjelovar along a part of the newly built railway (Gradec-Sveti Ivan Zabno).
Ukic apologised to passengers and journalists who were present for the delay that occurred due to difficulties connecting the two trains in Zagreb. “I hope that we will eliminate these issues and that such delays will not occur in the future,” he added.
According to the timetable, the train will leave Osijek every day at 20:00 and should arrive at its final destination in Split at 08:42 the next morning. It will leave Split at 22:06, and should arrive in Osijek at 11:36.
Since the announcement of this new direct Osijek-Split train line, an encouraging 2,500 tickets have been sold, and according to the Croatian Government’s decision, train transportation will be made free for people under nineteen years of age.
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