Have A Nice Trip

A serious accident in Kosovo has made some think about road and rail safety here. Traffic has never been particularly safe in Yugoslavia, but after the introduction of sanctions, the problem has been acerbated. The shortage of fuel, spare parts and maintenance equipment have resulted in the collapse of the traffic system and led to increased dangers, so that those who have to travel risk wasting their time and even getting killed.

Passenger traffic on the domestic railways is currently operating because all freight traffic has come to a standstill. It remains to be seen for how long the trains will be able to run, since the rails, never in a great state, are deteriorating daily. The situation is worse now as there are no materials for their maintenance. The ironworks in Zenica (Bosnia) was the only Yugoslav factory which produced rails and gauge material before the war. Because of the war, Serbia's railway company started importing rails from Poland, but the economic blockade put an end to this source of supply. Railway workers were advised, allegedly from the highest place, to dismantle the rails on the Belgrade-Zagreb line. Someone has estimated that this line will not be in operation for a long time to come.

Thanks to lower speeds, it takes five to six hours to reach Nis (250 km south of Belgrade). The situation becomes clearer when we remember that the ``Orient Express'' travelled this section in the same time at the beginning of the century. In short, the capacity of the Nis line has dropped to such an extent that the line would not be able to operate under normal circumstances.

The problem with engines is just as great. Maintenance has always been a problem, since like with the municipal transport company, this is where economies were always made, so that the war and sanctions just accelerated the collapse. Precise data are being kept secret, but it has been learned unofficially that the percent of faulty electric locomotives has reached 80%.

Those passengers who had the misfortune to travel on the Ruma-Sabac line three weeks ago, speak of an exotic trip in closed freight ``G-cars'' (not exactly cattle cars, but the difference isn't great), last seen during the post World War Two period of ``renewal and reconstruction.'' To round off the impression, the cars had last been used to transport cement, but since no one had thought of cleaning them, the passengers presented an interesting spectacle on reaching Sabac.

The railway workers seem to have decided that it is better to squeeze the passengers into relatively safe freight cars, rather than risk transporting them in passenger cars with faulty brakes and no spare parts. There are not enough wheels, and the situation would be worse if a contingent had not arrived via Bulgaria, Greece and Macedonia. The undertaking did not pass without problems, and the drama reached its peak in Bulgaria, where suspicious state officials couldn't understand why Greece needed so many sets of wheels (the destination of the goods on the papers). The wheels finally reached Yugoslavia, but no one knows where the next ones will come from.

The situation is not as alarming in other railway sectors, even though the signalling system, safety equipment and communication links fail daily somewhere. For the time being, however, the system is managing to operate, even though a strict adherence to rules would not allow any of the locomotives to run.

Road traffic is not much more reliable.The main reason for the collapse lies in the shortage of fuel, but problems pertaining to spare parts are just a great. The ``Lasta-Avala'' transport company's traffic sector chief Gradimir Tasic claims that under circumstances such as these, safety is at an enviable level: ``the vital, or so-called active security (brakes, driving mechanism...) is total, since no faulty bus can leave the garage. If that were to happen, no driver would agree to get behind the wheel. `Passive' security is not so good, because the tires are worn thin, and this could become a problem when the rainy season starts. It is increasingly difficult to find tires. They are of low quality and barely manage to last some 10,000--odd kilometers. Conditions for work in the garages are very difficult, the workshops are not heated, there are no spare parts. We don't have enough oil, let alone fuel. The passenger network around Belgrade has disintegrated. The winter is a great worry, especially if there is scarcity of salt and sand for the roads. For the time being we make up for all these problems by driving at smaller speeds and an increased concentration on the part of the drivers. So far we have had a small percentage of accidents, and these were mostly due to the `human factor'. There were practically no accidents caused by the technical state of the vehicles.''

Bus companies, the railway company and the Belgrade transport company await the winter with apprehension. Traffic has decreased, and the roads are increasingly empty. However, those with enough money to buy gas have introduced a new ``free style'' of driving which has nothing in common with the rules. Highwaymen stop buses and rob passengers, while the kidnapping of passengers on the Belgrade-Bar railway line is slowly taking its place in the chronicles of infamy in the Balkans. All in all, have a nice trip!