June the 30th, 2022 - Croatian railways aren't usually praised by many users of their services, with complaints about the trains being slow frequent and even situations in which the train drivers not bothering to turn up for work occurring. Could all that change with some new acquisitions?

There is an enormous amount to see all over this extremely geographically diverse country, which, while small, packs a punch from the sparkling Adriatic Sea and its impressive rugged coastline to its imposing, karst mountain ranges, luscious green rolling hills, picturesque lakes and seemingly endless Eastern vineyards. Seeing it all by train would be the preferred choice of many if things ran a little more smoothly, and it seems like that's going to happen.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, recently, the Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butkovic, visited the Koncar factory hall in which brand new electric trains are being produced as part of the project entitled The Reconstruction of the Croatian Railways (HZ) Passenger Transport fleet.

The new trains are being co-financed from the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme 2014-2020 in the amount of 85 percent, and the total estimated value of the project stands at a whopping 1.29 billion kuna.

Croatian Railways is continuing modernising its entire fleet with eleven brand new electric trains for urban-suburban transport and ten other new electric trains for regional transport, and by the year 2024, it should have almost seventy new trains in use across the country, which makes up more than fifty percent of the current fleet.

These brand new and much more modern trains set to take to Croatian railways will reach a speed of 160 kilometres per hour and will be equipped with ramps for people in wheelchairs, and there will also be proper bicycle space and free internet access for passengers.

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April the 17th, 2022 - A decade ago, HZ (Croatian railways) purchased 44 new trains for the mind-boggling price of 1.66 billion kuna, but where are they today?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, in order to procure seven new diesel-electric motor trains, the Croatian Government gave the "green light" to HZ Putnicki prijevoz (CR Passenger transport) to sign pre-financing and lease agreements with EUROFIMA - the European Society for Financing the Procurement of Railway Materials. The value of this financing stands at a massive 31 million euros.

When it comes to the renewal of HZ Putnicki prijevoz's fleet, ten years ago, as part of the strategic goals of restructuring, the government "appointed" a plan worth 1.66 billion kuna for the purchase of a total of 44 new passenger trains - 32 being electric and 12 being diesel-electric.

A few years later (more precisely back in 2014), sales were agreed with Koncar - HZ PP Electric Vehicles, and in the same year financing was provided for a total of 33 such trains.

A total of 29 electric trains have been delivered so far, and the remaining three deliveries are expected to arrive later this year. In the case of diesel-electrics, all five had financing provided for them (one loan from HBOR, and four from an IBRD loan).

For the remaining seven vehicles, funding is being provided through EUROFIME, with delivery being promised by the end of 2024, thus completing the major procurement project.

In addition to approving these requests from HZ Putnicki prijevoz, in order to finance the reconstruction and modernisation of Croatian railway infrastructure on projects not financed from European Union (EU) funds and international development banks, the Croatian Government also approved a request from HZ Infrastruktura (Infrastructure) for two loans from HBOR in the amount of 200 million kuna.

These are loans envisaged by the Financing Plan for the year 2022 and projections for the coming years of 2023 and 2024. The explanation states, among other things, that the debt balance of Infrastruktura for total credit loans at the end of January amounts to 1.78 billion kuna.

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