UNMIK/FR/0047/01
FEATURE RELEASE - 22 June, 2001

With the Passenger Train to Pejė/Pec  Life Seems Normal Again

By Eleanor Beardsley

When children run out to wave at this passing train, a mass of hands dangling out the windows, wave back.  Farmers who look up from their fields are surprised to see that the train making its way from Pristina to Pejė/Pec is not the regular coal-carrying train, but a regular passenger train carrying people.  At the start of the first journey, on this fine May morning, the first commercial passenger service to run in two years pulls out of the Pristina station amidst a round of applause and the clicking of camera shutters.

For Gunnar Hallert, Railways General Manager, Department of Transport and Infrastructure (DoTI), it's a big day.  "You can feel the enthusiasm," he says.  "Everyone seems to be so happy that the train is coming back into their lives - that things are becoming normal again."  
For the first two months, the Pristina - Pejė/Pec passenger line is to operate twice a day, serving 16 stations between the two cities.  Full fare for the entire one-way trip, which takes approximately two hours, is DM 4.5.

Becoming normal has been the goal of the railways ever since UNMIK and DoTI took over from KFOR in March 2001.  Besides the first passenger train, Hallert and his counterpart at Fushė Kosovė/Kosovo Polje, Railways Director Gani Lahu, can boast many other steps toward the normalization of the Kosovo railways. 
After months of negotiations, in the past two weeks the Department of Transport and Infrastructure has signed agreements with both Macedonian and Serbian Railways.  These agreements will permit the movement of commercial freight traffic over Kosovo's northern and southern boundaries and borders.  With the figurative front and back doors to Kosovo open, commercial rail activity can begin generating revenues and improving the environment by replacing some of the trucks on the roadways.

But today, it's Kosovo's first passenger train that is getting all the attention.  Meti Krasniqi, publisher of the road and traffic magazine, Tempulli, has come out to ride the first train.  Krasniqi says that psychologically this train is very important for the people of Kosovo.  
"It's not that we haven't had passenger rail service in the last two years," says Krasniqi, "but really for the last ten years.  Because before no one wanted to ride the trains for fear of being interrogated by the police.  Now we can take the train again in full security and confidence." 
Krasniqi watches the scenery go by with his friend Rexhep Sijarina, who is a traffic cop in the Pristina region.  Sijarina knows first-hand how important the train is to Kosovo. 

"This train is so good for us because there are too many cars in Kosovo," he says.  "Perhaps this train will get some of those cars off the roads.  And this line is particularly important for linking people in the small villages."

As the train makes its way through fields of red poppies and ambles alongside the Drenica River, passengers gaze out on children splashing in the river and cows grazing on the riverbanks. UNMIK staffers who have come to take a ride in the countryside seem to relish such sites. 
John Townsend, roads manager with DoTI, is used to discovering Kosovo from his car.  "I see the R-120!" he shouts out.  "That's my road.  This does give a whole other perspective of the countryside.  And it really is a beautiful country. But perhaps they should think about selling wine on board," he muses.

As the rail cars pull in to each station, the stationmasters raise their glasses in toast.  The children from the village have turned out and the general atmosphere is festive. It's been a long time since they had a visit from the train.  
Although on this day the atmosphere is celebratory, railway worker Shaban Zeka reminds me that this train has a practical use - taking people to their jobs.  The large KEK operations in Bardh and Pristina bring workers in from all over the area.  30 per cent of the KEK workers in Bardh are from Pejė/Pec alone, and this train will bring them to work every day.  "Not only that," says Zeka, "this train is the only link between Kline and Drenica."

Statements like this convince Gani Lahu that the train will be a success.  "We must have four to five hundred passengers a day to keep this train running," he says.  "But we think we can do it.  Because aside from making for a nice Sunday outing, Kosovars need this train."

Note for editors
The full document may be consulted online in English at http://www.unmik.org/. Albanian and Serbian versions can be provided.

For a selection of photographs, please contact Mr Ky Chung at 038 504-604 ext. 5467