Railway line Nis - Dimitrovgrad is one of the two southern branches of Corridor 10 through Serbia. It is the main international
transit line for freight traffic to and from Bulgaria and Turkey. The renovation and electrification of this line was planned many years ago. As the plans are not realized, this line is left to years of non-maintenance and infrastructure deterioration. Today,
mainly transit freight trains between Europe and the Middle East pass through this line. There are a few pairs of passenger trains, too. This video was recorded from one of DMU trains from Dimitrovgrad to Nis.
The ride from Dimitrovgrad (Serbian/Bulgarian border cross station) starts along the valley of the river Nisava and the railway gradually descends towards the Sicevo Gorge. Sicevo Gorge is the most scenic part, because the track runs through high cuts, rock cliffs and several tunnels. Along the line, track often crosses from one to the other side of the Nisava river across the numerous steel bridges. Among them there are bridges of closed steel construction and there are also ordinary ones.
A very unusual phenomenon for the main railway lines is very lush vegetation that has overgrown the entire track. As the last overhaul of this railway line was done several decades ago, there are many limited and slow ordered speeds. This is the reason why the passenger train runs over 3 hours to cover 97km of this line.
During the video the location and maximum permitted speed of the train are constantly displayed. Limited speeds, slow ordered speeds, all tunnels along the line, train stations and stops elevation and important events during the train ride are also also shown.
Date of recording:
June, 2020.
