Narrow-gauge railways in Bosnia and Herzegovina


Most Bosnian-gauge railway lines were built during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Several gauge railways were planned in order to link the extensive narrow-gauge railways in the Austro-Hungarian Empire with those in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Until the outbreak of the Balkan Wars in 1912 several were constructed.
Between World War I and World War II the network was extended significantly, at the end connecting the Adriatic Coast with Belgrade, with the network growing to around 1500 km in length.
Construction of a new standard-gauge line from Sarajevo to Ploče on the Adriatic in 1966 replaced the Narentabahn from Sarajevo to the coast and isolated the south-western narrow-gauge system from the railways starting at Sarajevo. With the demise of a connecting network all the other remaining narrow-gauge lines were then at risk and restricted to local traffic.
The system based on the Adriatic closed in 1975. By 1979 the rest of the Bosnian lines had closed. In Serbia the last line closed in 1983. The most modern diesel railcars were sold to the Portuguese Railways, becoming Portuguese train type 9700.

Central gauge network

"Steinbeis" railways

Approximately 400 km, 1902–75.
Built as a group of four main forest railways of the "Bosnische Forstindustrie AG Otto Steinbeis". All four railways started off from Srnetica.
  1. Srnetica–Šipovo–Jajce
  2. * In Jajce it connected directly further to Donji Vakuf via the Spalato railway)
  3. Sanski MostSrneticaPrijedor
  4. * In Prijedor it had an interchange connection to the normal-gauge railway DobrljinBosanski NoviPrijedorBanja Luka.
  5. SrneticaDrvarLička KaldrmaKnin
  6. * In Knin it had an interchange connection to the normal-gauge railway system of Croatia.
  7. * "Unska pruga" normal-gauge railway was built in 1948 in the vicinity of this railway in the section between Knin and Lička Kaldrma, but both railways had their own distinct routes and even operated simultaneously for a short period of time.
  8. SrneticaGornji Ribnik
These four main forestry railrays had numerous local forestry logging branches near Grmeč, Klekovača, Oštrelj, Manjača and Glamoč.

"Spalato" railway

Spalato Bahn ; 104.5 km, built 1893–95, Connecting the Steinbeis railway with the Bosna railway.

Bosna railway

Bosnabahn, 355.2 km
Railroad's demise:
  • A sort-of replacement normal-gauge railroad Bosanski ŠamacDobojMaglajZavidovićiŽepčeZenicaLašvaKakanjVisokoPodlugoviSemizovacSarajevo was built in 1947.
  • This caused an immediate closure of the entire central section of the old narrow-gauge Bosna railway from Doboj to Zenica in 1947.
  • However, its remaining two sections continued to operate:
  • * Section "Bosanski BrodDerventaDoboj" operated until 1968, in order to keep the direct-gauge connection of the Teslić basin railway to Sava river at Bosanski Brod.
  • * Section "Zenica–Lašva" continued to operate until 1975, in order to provide direct-gauge connection of Zenica's industry with the areas serviced by Spalato railway.
  • * Section "Lašva–Kakanj–Visoko–Sarajevo" continued to operate until 1967 in order to provide the direct-gauge connection of Zenica's industry with the port of Ploče.

Tuzla basin railway

Karanovac–Gračanica

Teslić basin railway

  • Doboj–Usora–Teslić, where it branched off in three relatively long directions to various local mountains and forests;
  • * It had a direct connection to Bosna railway in Doboj.

ZavidovićiOlovoHan PijesakKusače

  • ZavidovićiOlovoHan PijesakKusače
  • * Built as a private forestry railroad with numerous local branches along the way.
  • ** Taken by the state later on and used as a mixed public / forestry railroad.
  • * It had a direct connection to Bosna railway in Zavidovići.

Podlugovi–Breza–Vareš industrial railway

Semizovac–Srednje–Čevljanovići–Ivančići

  • Semizovac–Srednje–Čevljanovići–Ivančići; 20.3 km built 1885.
  • * Built primarily for extracting ores from mines in Čevljanovići and Ivančići;
  • * It had a direct connection to Bosna railway in Semizovac.

Narenta railway

Narenta railway ; 178.4 km, constructed 1885–1891.
Ploče–Metković; 1942 extension to a planned sea harbour in Ploče.

Dalmatian and Zelenika railways

Dalmatiner Bahn ; 188.6 km, built 1901.

East Bosnian railway

Bosnische Ostbahn 166.4 km, built 1906.

Upper Drina railway

  • Ustiprača–Goražde–Foča ;
  • * It had direct connection to the East Bosnian railway in Ustiprača.
  • * It was extended in 1946 to Brod na Drini village, which connected it to the forestry narrow-gauge railroad network of "Maglić" forestry conglomerate.
In the 1960s, plans were made to regauge the lines to standard gauge. However, this was not realised. On 28 May 1978 the line was closed for commercial traffic.
The track bed is currently very visible in the landscape, with several stations, tunnels still visible. A small part of the track is still in service as a heritage railway rebuilt between 1999 and 2003, Šargan Eight.

Other

There were numerous private industrial and mostly forestry narrow-gauge railroads in operation throughout the late 19th and most of 20th century, with varying construction and deconstruction dates.
Some of them were isolated, while some had direct connections to one of the main state narrow-gauge railroads.
Only some of those railroads are mentioned below.

Bosanska Mezgraja–Bijeljina railway

Bosanska Mezgraja–Bijeljina–Ugljevik;
An isolated gauge railway

Sinj railway

Split–Sinj ; 40 km, 1903–62. A planned extension via Aržano to Bugojno never materialized because of World War I and the line remained isolated from the Bosnian network.

Banovići coal-mine railway

A gauge industrial line opened in 1947 near Tuzla. Still in commercial operation.