The continuing quest to visit every country in Europe was aided in November 2017 by a £10 Ryanair fare from Podgorica in Montenegro to London. An obvious one to team up with Albania. For a long time Albania was the poorest country in Europe by quite some margin, with a leadership that complained of the right leaning tendencies of the Soviet Union. Visiting in 2017 however found a country that was welcoming to visitors, did not seek to rip anyone off, and where attitudes and investment were quite liberal. However such good fortune had not befallen Albanian Railways, on whom friends had previously experienced windowless bench seated carriages, and where the main station in the capital, Tirana, had been demolished. It is understood that lack of money for fuel meant Albanian Railways had temporarily ceased operating earlier in 2017.
Nowadays four daily return services are operated from the coastal port city of Durres, two to Kashar on the outskirts of the capital, one to the north of the country and Schkoder, and one in land to Elbasan, south-east of Tirana.
We went to use a Durres-Kashar service and found an unloved and unused railway. Here it is in pictures....
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| The interior of Durres station with the staffed ticket window at the far end. Two singles to Kashar, about a 40 minute journey, came to barely one pound. |
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| Outside Durres station is the entire rail timetable for Albania. Prior to the demolition of Tirana station there were 6 or 7 round trips from Durres. In comparison the private coach operators combine to operate a 20-minute headway between the two cities. |
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| The fare chart from Durres, featuring many destinations no longer served. |
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| Curious poster advertising Albanian Railways (Hekurudha Shqiptare) promising many things which are not delivered, not least the Intercity 'swallow' livery High Speed Train and a working signal. |
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| Two platforms and a siding are available at Durres station. |
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| Waiting facilities are available. |
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| Rolling stock is former East German (Deutsches Reichsbahn) carriages that were used in a unified Germany and therefore are largely in Die Bahn's red colours. Many windows are missing from doors. Each window frame in the passenger saloons had glass, but was usually cracked, shot at or missing some or all of a pane of the double glazing. |
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| An attempt has been made to tidy up some rolling stock, with new windows and a new paint job, but in the case of this one the paint has rapidly peeled revealing the old German paint job beneath. |
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| The passenger rolling stock is also very heavily graffitied. |
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| Albania's passenger trains are hauled by Class 669 diesel locomotives built in Czechoslovakia in the mid-late 1980s. I observed that two carriage formations seem to be the norm with one carriage locked out of use. Demand levels did not present a challenge to the amount of accommodation provided. |
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| One Class 669 we saw had been painted in the new HSH branding, and this was to form our train to Kashar. |
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| The reason for the limited, day time only, timetable becomes evident when you realise there are no signals. Every signal post is missing lights. This results in a low speed infrequent line-of-sight railway. |
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| Taking photos and videos from an Albanian train is made easier by the lack of windows in the doors. There were four passengers on our train to Kashar so no croding in the vestibules! |
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| Which is probably just as well as the wooden floor was rotten and cracking under foot. |
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| Passenger saloon largely 'as received' from Germany with added antimacassars. The seats and arm rests are falling to bits. |
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| The view from the train somewhat restricted by the condition of the windows. |
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| Another confidence-enduring signal post en route to Kashar. There appeared to be some form of token working as we stopped twice between Durres and Kashar and things were handed to/from the locomotive. There were also several manned hand-worked level crossings. |
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| We stopped here en-route. No idea if it is an active station. |
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| Same here, a more modern/better maintained facility. |
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| Kashar station, the terminus. Like everywhere on HSH it was well staffed. |
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| Fare chart from Kashar. |
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| At Kashar the locomotive runs around, not sure if it stabled or runs empty back to Durres. Those bicycles outside the station? Kids who turn up to ride on the loco as it runs around! For any train enthusiasts I am convinced that not many lek will score you a cab ride! |
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| Another Class 669 |
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| And the final gratuitous train photo of a load more 669s at the depot just outside Durres. |
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| Quite a few partially complete buildings are present along the line from Durres (which broadly parallels the main road, a dual carriageway, between Durres and Tirana). |
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| However this is how the Albanians travel inter-city, on a series of privately owned/operated but remarkably well coordinated coaches and minibuses. This is one of at least three coach stations in Tirana. |
Two more HSH shots.....making me glad I didn't go with the original plan of riding on the four hour trip to Schkoder!
