Speed. That’s what Serbia just delivered with its new high-speed railway, and the numbers are frankly ridiculous. A journey that used to take five hours now clocks in at just 79 minutes. We’re talking about the Belgrade–Budapest railway, a 350-kilometer beast designed to hit 200 km/h.
Five hours to 79 minutes—that’s not progress, that’s infrastructure obliteration on a 350-kilometer track hitting 200 km/h.
The Serbian section is already operational. Belgrade to Novi Sad opened in March 2022, and Belgrade to Subotica—a 180-kilometer stretch—now takes 1 hour and 10 minutes. Once the Hungarian section is complete, the entire Belgrade–Budapest trip will drop from eight hours to 2 hours and 40 minutes. That’s not incremental improvement. That’s demolition of old standards.
The infrastructure tells the story. Serbia split the project into three main segments: Belgrade-Stara Pazova (34.5 km), Stara Pazova-Novi Sad (40.4 km), and Novi Sad-Subotica (107.4 km).
That Novi Sad–Subotica line alone required 15 segments and 73 engineering structures. New bridges, tunnels, renovated stations, telecommunication upgrades. They installed the European Train Control System Level 2 because safety and interoperability matter when you’re moving this fast.
Rolling stock arrived from China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation. Five high-speed trains, each with 250 seats, capable of 200 km/h. The first one showed up in June 2024, complete with intelligent diagnostics, wheelchair access, and bicycle storage.
Everything’s digitized—ticketing, maintenance systems, the works.
Here’s where it gets interesting financially. China’s footing most of the bill—roughly 85% of investment needs covered by Chinese loans. The Serbian section alone cost around $2 billion, with $297 million from the Export-Import Bank of China.
Hungary borrowed $2.1 billion for their portion. Critics aren’t thrilled about cost recovery prospects, especially in Hungary where project expenses ballooned. Fair concern, maybe, though the economics might look different once the full route opens.
That said, the ridership numbers don’t lie. The Belgrade–Novi Sad section saw 6.83 million passengers in its first two years. People vote with their feet, and apparently they prefer arriving 79 minutes later instead of five hours later. Hard to argue with that logic.
The project emerged from the 16+1 summit in Belgrade back in 2014, marking it as a flagship initiative under China’s Belt and Road strategy. The broader vision extends beyond just speed—it’s about creating a land-to-sea corridor that connects Central Europe to Greek ports, fundamentally reshaping regional trade routes. This route once carried the Orient Express, the legendary train that connected Paris to Constantinople starting in 1883, bringing a touch of historical prestige to modern infrastructure ambitions.
