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OPINEWS

Tirana-Durres Railway, from Enver Hoxha to Edi Rama

Politiko 2025-04-14 19:40:10

Tirana-Durres Railway, from Enver Hoxha to Edi Rama

By Lutfi Dervishi

In 1948, with a heavy hat, a long coat and an even longer speech, Enver Hoxha started the construction of the Durrës-Tirana railway, after the first Durrës-Kavajë line.
Within 10 months, without applications, without tenders, without community consultations, without inspections and without an “updated project”, Albania had a functional train line. With pickaxe, shovel and a lot of ideological drumbeat, but with concrete results.
Today, more than 75 years later, democratic and digitalized Albania, with drones, satellite mapping, with the Albania 1 and Albania 2 satellites, “smart city” on its lips, and with Artificial Intelligence on its mind, does not have a train station in the capital, as capitals of the world everywhere have and has still not managed to complete the same Tirana-Durres railway line.
The project, scheduled to be completed in 2023, was postponed to 2024, and finally to 2025. Perhaps they wanted to pay homage to 1949, when the train started operating!
Once the youth were mobilized by the Party, today they are motivated by the “Digital Balkan Agenda”. The result? Then – a train. Today, a 3D project in PowerPoint.
In 1949, 4,000 young volunteers built a railway with pickaxes and collective enthusiasm.
Today, we have a project office, three international consultants, four decisions for additional funds and press conferences and inspections every month, where it is said: “Work continues at a high pace... Only forward”.
The cost? From 69 million Euros it flew to 91.7 million Euros. Not for the train, but for the several-year wait. Citizens hope to travel in 22 minutes from Tirana to Durrës, while they have been waiting for 22 years to board the train.
Europe is filling up with trains at speeds of 300 km per hour and here they cannot rebuild a 30 km line!
The Albania of 2025 may not have a functional railway, but there will be an application that will show where the train could be, if the project had been completed.
Because in this country, the train is late, but the promise and propaganda are not, they are always on time.

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