European Railroad Discussion > European Railway Stations Part 21

This attractive but rather run down station in Belgrad, Serbia is on it's last legs. As can just barely be seen in the far left of the first photo, there is a huge advertisement for a new development for the entire area with the railway being moved elsewhere with a new modern station. No idea if any of the existing structure will be incorporated into those plans. Photo was taken in 2017 so development might already be underway. New development is much needed in this rather run down and depressing city.. 

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andersonb109 Wrote:
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> This attractive but rather run down station in
> Belgrad, Serbia is on it's last legs. As can just
> barely be seen in the far left of the first photo,
> there is a huge advertisement for a new
> development for the entire area with the railway
> being moved elsewhere with a new modern station.
> No idea if any of the existing structure will be
> incorporated into those plans. Photo was taken in
> 2017 so development might already be underway. New
> development is much needed in this rather run down
> and depressing city.. 

The station was sadly closed in mid-2018 and all traffic diverted to the rather remote and unfinished Beograd Centar or (in the case of the trains to/from Montenegro) the obscure Topcider station.

And torn down as well?  Seems like in so many cases, the facade of these fine buildings could be saved and used as frontice facades for newer structures. Fort Street Union Depot in Detroit could have easily been made into office space for the community college built on site. Other examples that were successful include Brisbane, Australia where a hotel was built just behind the head house and of course the ballpark in Houston where Union Station serves as offices. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> And torn down as well?  Seems like in so many
> cases, the facade of these fine buildings could be
> saved and used as frontice facades for newer
> structures. Fort Street Union Depot in Detroit
> could have easily been made into office space for
> the community college built on site. Other
> examples that were successful include Brisbane,
> Australia where a hotel was built just behind the
> head house and of course the ballpark in Houston
> where Union Station serves as offices. I'm sure
> there are others I'm not thinking of.

No, they planned to keep the facade (and still do, as far as I know), as detailed on the corresponding Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrade_Main_railway_station#After_shut_down

The station has seen a lot of history since 1885.

Posted from Android

Station was still intact in November, 2019.  But rails long gone.  

Looks like a nice preservation effort.  

Boarding at TopCider wasn't difficult, it was an easy bicycle ride from my hostel downtown, and a tram runs there, too.  

Ted in UT

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/22 00:37 by gobbl3gook.

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The station cafe was still doing good business... 

Sad, of course, to see the trains leave the center of the city.  

Belgrade is doing a better job than Tirana, Albania, though, where the train station was razed for a plaza, hasn't been replaced, and trains don't run into the capital anymore, or on a schedule anywhere else...  

I hope Eastern European trains survive the economic fallout of the pandemic.  All countries (except Albania) that I visited last fall had healthy, well patronized train services, though many were threadbare.  

Ted in UT

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