First Railway in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Opened in 1872, Connected Banja Luka and Bosanski Novi

The first railway in Bosnia and Herzegovina was opened to traffic on December 24, 1872. It was a standard-gauge line from Banja Luka to Dobrljin (101.6 km) in the municipality of Bosanski Novi in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

This railway was built as part of the Constantinople Mainline, which, according to Turkish plans, was supposed to connect Constantinople with Vienna.

First Directorate of Bosnian Railways

After the Berlin Congress (1878), Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina and immediately began intensive railway construction. The occupation troops built railways along the line of their advance into Bosnia to secure troop supplies. Already in September 1878, construction began on a narrow-gauge railway from Bosanski Brod to Sarajevo. On September 10, 1878, the first directorate of Bosnian-Herzegovinian railways was founded in Derventa, under the name „Directorate of the Imperial and Royal Bosnian Railways“. The director was Austro-Hungarian Major – Engineer Johan Tomašek.

The staff of the Directorate, according to available archives of the Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, consisted of seven Austro-Hungarian officers and military officials, 30 civilian officials from Austria-Hungary, and a larger number of other personnel – exclusively foreigners. Local workers were auxiliary staff.

The military administration ordered that the section from Bosanski Brod to Derventa must be completed within two months. From Romania, where the narrow-gauge railway Temišvar - Oršava was being completed, locomotives and available wagons were transferred, owned by the company „Higel and Sagel“ which would also build railways in Bosnia. This circumstance determined the future character of Bosnian-Herzegovinian railways, which were narrow-gauge lines of 0.76 m. The railway towards Derventa was built by 40 engineers and 4,000 workers, writes Patria.

Built without prior studies

During the construction of this railway, there was no time for the preparation of any technical studies or elaborate reports.

In the first phase of the built railway, it is stated in the archives of the Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the level of technical correctness was at the lowest possible technical level and barely met the minimum for safe traffic operation.

A particular problem were the switches, so-called „ciganke“, which blacksmiths made on site. The rolling stock consisted of small locomotives and wagons. The locomotives had a power of 20 to 40 horsepower, and the open wagons called „loris“ had a capacity of two tons. The coupling of wagons was primitive and due to rigid connections, trains often broke apart on curves.

For passenger traffic, ten „loris“ were converted in such a way that vertical posts were placed in the four corners of the wagon and a roof canvas, called „SEGEITUH“, was stretched. The front sides were nailed with boards, and the side sides of the car were covered with curtains. Such a train from Bosanski Brod to Zenica took 15 hours.

Correction and improvement of the technical elements of the railway occurred in 1880. Construction of the railway towards Sarajevo continued. New locomotives with a power of 50 horsepower, new two-axle passenger cars of second and third class, and closed freight cars were procured.

The first section of this railway, from Bosanski Brod to Doboj, was completed in February 1879, from Doboj to Žepče in April, and from Žepče to Zenica in June of the same year. The complete railway to Sarajevo was completed on October 5, 1882, when the locomotive „RAMA“ brought the first train to Sarajevo. The total length of this railway was 270.117 km.

During further operation, improvements were made on the railway, the most significant being the drilling of the Vranduk tunnel in 1910 and the installation of type 4 rails weighing 22 kg, which significantly improved the superstructure. The next railway built was the mining and forestry railway Semizovac - Ivančići. Its main purpose was the export of manganese ore from the rich deposit near Čevljanovići and the removal of semi-processed timber logs.

Railway in the south of the country

Wanting to establish communication from the interior to the sea as soon as possible, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy decided to build the Southern Railway. The first section of this railway from Metković to Mostar was opened to traffic in June 1885.

As a branch of the main trunk line Doboj - Sarajevo, in 1886 the railway Doboj - Simin Han (66.7 km) was built along the Spreča River valley. This railway ensured the export of high-quality coal and salt from the rich Tuzla basin.

That same year, the Railway Directorate moved from Derventa to Sarajevo. Due to the low capacity of the built railways, construction of the Southern Railway from Mostar towards Sarajevo continued, so in 1888 the section Mostar – Ostrožac was opened to traffic, and the following year the first train entered Konjic.