Europe's Largest Capital Without a Subway Is Finally Getting One

[marmar]

(Bloomberg CityLab) Europe’s biggest capital city without a subway has seen initiatives to build one fail for almost a century. By the early 1990’s, a TV series was named “Waiting for Metro” after Samuel Beckett’s famous play “Waiting For Godot” about futile anticipation.

The long wait is coming to an end, city officials say, with €1 billion in binding contracts signed with Chinese and French construction companies and bankers over the past year, and more being finalized so that Belgrade’s first, €4.4 billion ($5.13 billion) subway line can open in 2030. A second line is to follow a few years later, at a similar cost, while designs are developed for a third to try to ease chronic congestion and pollution in the city of 1.7 million people.


“This time it’s real,” said Andreja Mladenovic, who heads the state company JKP Belgrade Metro and Train that oversees the project. Past efforts weren’t nearly as advanced as the current one, he said, adding, “It’s unstoppable now.”

There was no other choice. Robust economic growth in Serbia over the past decade, typically benefiting the capital more than the provinces, has attracted masses of job-seekers, as well as foreigners, including tens of thousands of Russians fleeing Vladimir Putin’s regime since the start of the Ukraine war. Ancient central streets were never meant for the ever-increasing density of residents. .....................(more)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-11-28/belgrade-serbia-s-capital-city-is-getting-a-subway-after-a-100-year-wait?srnd=phx-citylab