Kosovo Railways
| Private | |
| Industry | Rail Transport |
| Headquarters | Pristina, Kosovo |
| Website | http://www.trainkos.com |
Trainkos sh.a also (Albanian: Operimet me Trena të Hekurudhave të Kosovës sh.a) is the railway carrier of Kosovo. It was originally formed as the Kosovo Railways J.S.C UNMIK Railways from the lines of the former Yugoslav Railways that lie on Kosovan territory. In 2011, the company was split into two public companies called Trainkos and Infrakos, the latter responsible for rail maintenance.
The first railway line was built under Turkish guidance for the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer Orientaux (CO), led by Maurice de Hirsch. It started in Thessaloniki, went on north to Skopje and reached Kosovska Mitrovica in 1873.
Before the First World War it was used by the Serbian Railways which operated as Yugoslav Railways between 1918 and 1992, and stopped their operations in Kosovo after the NATO intervention in 1999. In 2008 Serbian Railways restored some of its routes in Northern Kosovo region.
Trainkos operates 430 km (267 mi) of railway in Kosovo, of which 333 km (207 mi) serve both freight and passenger and 97 km (60 mi) only serve freight traffic. The non-electrified network originally consisted of two lines crossing at Fushë Kosovë railway station in Kosovo Polje: A main line going from Kraljevo in western Serbia via Kosovska Mitrovica and Kosovo Polje to Skopje in Macedonia, and a branch line in east-west direction from Niš in southern Serbia via Pristina railway station in the capital Pristina and Kosovo Polje with one branch leading to Peć and the other one to Prizren. Of these lines, the one from Pristina to Peć and the one from Kosovo Polje to Macedonia are still served by passenger trains. Some more parts of the network are occasionally served by freight trains, like Kosovo Polje - Obilić; the other parts of the network are currently unused. For years, there have been plans to extend the branch to Prizren across the border to Albania, to create a link to the network of the Hekurudha Shqiptare. However, these projects are no more than letters of intent.
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Wikipedia