29 March 2019 - According to the conclusions of the assembly held by Railway Transport Service representatives, the launch of a special train schedule once a week only for tourists from Bar to Kolašin could significantly improve the tourist offer of Montenegro,
The assembly, which took place in Podgorica on March 28, was attended by the Director of Railway Transport Service Nenad Babić, Commercial Head of Railway Transport Service Mirko Rmandić and representatives of tourist agencies in Podgorica, Bar, Nikšić and Bijelo Polje.
According to the report published by Pobjeda daily, during the assembly, the participants noted that it is of great importance for the Railway Transport Service representatives to engage in active cooperation with the tourist agencies of the cities above.
"This type of offer would allow us to organise a slow train route so that the passengers could see all the interesting areas in between the two cities. They could have time to photograph certain tourist attractions and landscapes which could enhance their whole travel experience," said Babić, adding that the Railway Transport Service Company is mostly satisfied with its cooperation with the tourist agency Adria within which the two companies have already organised group tourist train routes from Bar to Kolašin.
According to him, the number of tourists last year was three times higher than in 2017, with an income of 37,000 EUR.
"This year we will focus on local transport because we expect problems in international transport within the territory of Serbia. On the route from Belgrade to Subotica, the railroad is currently being reconstructed, so most likely, the train from Subotica will not be transporting passengers to Montenegro. We need to substitute this lost revenue by increasing revenue related to local transport," Babić explained.
Rmandić said that by the end of April, the Railroad Company would introduce a computerized system, in which they invested 100,000 EUR. This system should enable passengers to buy or reserve tickets for 24 hours by a mobile application. They will also have to install a particular channel through which Montenegrin Railroad will be networked with the European Ticket Selling Organization, so tourists will be able to buy and book tickets if they want to travel from Vienna to Brussels. Staff training for this system starts on April 8.
Representatives of the tourist organizations promised to help with the railroad-related projects and pointed out that the stations in Crmnica and Virpazar should be reconstructed, that the information desk in Virpazar should be opened, and the train schedule should be set up at all stations in the English language. They suggested that the station "Aerodrom" in Podgorica should connect with the Airport in Golubovci and thus affect the increase of air and railroad traffic.
