North Macedonia

North Macedonia’s phantom rail line, and why I am worried they’re repeating the error at the other end of the country

The railway line from Thessaloniki (Greece) to Bitola (North Macedonia) via Florina has a long history. It was completed in 1894, before the Balkan Wars in 1913 resulted in the final 17km ending up in Yugoslavia. Trains continued to run on the cross border section until 1987, and then ceased, […]

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9th July 19:00 CEST – presentation of the first conclusions of #CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024

The research phase of #CrossBorderRail 2024 is done, so now it is time to start to assess what I learned. The first conclusions will be presented in a public webinar at 19:00 CEST on 9th July. The webinar has now concluded, and you can view it here: The slides that […]

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#CrossBorderRail South East Europe starts 26 May – how to follow the project

Sunday 26 May, at about 6am, I will hop on the faithful Birdy folding bike and cycle from Ravières to Montbard – the first of about 125 stages of #CrossBorderRail. Over the 5 weeks that follow I will travel more than 13000km, and investigate 35 new railway borders, most of […]

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#CrossBorderRail merchandise and fundraising update – ex-JŽ 441, symbol of a formerly interoperable railway

Previously in Yugoslavia, and today in Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina these locomotives are known as class 441. In Croatia they are class 1141. In Romania class 43 and 46. They are operated by Srbija Voz, TENT, MŽ, ŽFBH, ŽRS, HŽ, CFR and some private freight operators too. […]

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Attend or help organise an event during #CrossBorderRail South East Europe

As was the case in 2022 and 2023, I will be organising and attending a variety of events throughout #CrossBorderRail in 2024. Although the 6 non-EU countries in South East Europe are my focus for 2024, I am nevertheless making a rather large diversion to Tallinn at the start of […]

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Postcards during #CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024

During my #CrossBorderRail projects in 2022 and 2023 I sent postcards throughout the trips. In 2022 European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean even received a postcard from me every single day of the project! For #CrossBorderRail 2024 I am going to be repeating the postcards, with a slightly different format. […]

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As 2023 draws to a close, what next for #CrossBorderRail?

My 2023 projects might not have had the one-off “wow, some dude is crossing all of Europe’s borders in one go!” effect that 2022 had, but looking back the past 12 months have both been a lot of fun and has been politically interesting too. After the 83* borders crossed […]

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