Transit in Belgrade

 

Electric trolleybus: From our first trip!

Public transit accounts for 40 percent of daily trips in Belgrade ("Towards a Transit Oriented" 5); the bus system is extensive and for the most part easy to use, even for a foreigner. Reliable and frequent bus service is essential for sustaining life in the city.

Belgrade Transit consists of buses, well-integrated with trams and trolleys. All run on surface streets, interacting with auto traffic and stop for traffic signals. Buses run about every five minutes during the day, with trams and trolleys about every fifteen minutes. Frequency declines after about midnight. Between them they carry about two million passengers per day, with the lion's share to the buses ("Towards a Transit Oriented" 6). 

Tram near St. Mark's Square

Routes are easy to find and plan on mapping apps. However, you only get the scheduled times for buses, not real-time tracking, so it's possible particularly with lower-frequency routes to spend some time at the station or platform wondering. I was particularly aware of this when waiting with our students one evening event as a thunderstorm was approaching more noticeably than our tram was coming.

Waiting for a tram downtown

There happens also to be a very small subway, begun in the Communist era but only extended to one town on either side of the city center, that claims to carry about 29,000 passengers per day. It's probably important to those passengers, but doesn't add much to the system, other than being an obvious target for budget shifting.

Transit tickets and passes can be bought and loaded at certain of the numerous traficka kiosks around the city that also sell soft drinks, newspapers, and candy. Purchasing a card and loading that card are separate operations, as we discovered when we first bought 16 unloaded cards and were eventually found out by the transit police. Card balances can be checked on the bus, and reportedly at the kiosks, though when I tried I got charged 11 dinars for no information.

Diesel bus: Newest models provide very pleasant rides

Fare is 89 dinars (roughly $.89) per ride, including unlimited transfers within 90 minutes. They are paid by card on board using automated stations at each entry door, typically three per bus, that are not observed by the conductor. So it seems rather easy to board without paying. Transit police occasionally ride along, and they do check cards with the authority to eject non-paying passengers. Members of our group have had two unpleasant run-ins with the transit police, the first time--before we realized the cards were unloaded--being required to pay 5000 dinars (roughly $50.00) and the second time for unknown reasons before our students were rescued by the fortuitous appearance of one of our cycling guides. 

What we would have been riding 120 years ago

Interior of an older bus

There is no way to request a stop, which is not important since they make every one. Given the crowds on the buses, it has been rare that I have seen no one get on or off at any stop.

Very crowded #26 bus mid-afternoon

Although Belgrade residents make only 20-25 percent of trips by private car--more than Budapest or Paris, but less than Berlin or London, says the World Bank ("Towards a Transit Oriented" 4-5), cars are everywhere in the central city. Central districts have lost population for several decades ("Towards a Transit Oriented" 2) but remain densely-populated and active at all hours. My observation is that driving in traffic is highly improvisational and, if the amount of honking is any indication, extremely nerve-wracking--yet auto drivers are more aware of, and more accommodating to, pedestrians than they are in most areas of the United States. Still, the Vracar district, the densest in the city, lost a third of its population between 1961 and 2011; if that were to rebound much it would really strain it some infrastructure.

Getting a handle on car traffic, then, is critical to Belgrade's future if it is to be financially and ecologically sustainable, much less to retain its bustling urban character. That requires inducing demand for transit by making it more attractive while reducing demand to drive private cars. That's not easy; people are probably already making the choices they want to make given the options before them, so if they were somehow convinced to leave their cars and free up road space, other drivers would likely take their places. 

This tram looks like a relic from the 1940s

In spite of that, and with due humility since I've barely been here a week, I could stand to see:

• preferential treatment for transit vehicles. They should be able to use technology that allows them to switch traffic lights so they don't have to wait. 
• more bus capacity. Particularly at rush hour they can be jam packed, and most vehicles are older and not air conditioned. A more pleasant ride would be encouraging.

Gas station on Bulevar Mihaila Pupina in New Belgrade

• These wonders could be funded by:
• higher gasoline prices. I was all over this idea when I saw what was posted at the stations, which appeared to be about half the U.S. price until I realized it was per liter not per gallon. So current prices are actually $6.19 per gallon, which is considerably higher than current U.S. prices that are going to lose the Democrats control of Congress this fall. They are close to the cheapest prices in Europe, though, and if this many people are driving at current prices, I could go another dollar a gallon higher. I'm not running for office, in America or Serbia!
• streamlined fare collection. I don't know how much revenue is lost under the honor system, but it can't be zero. Couple it with fare cuts if that will salve the indignity, and maybe help to sell it. More fare collection equals better busing!!
• blowing up the subway. I apologize to the riders, but it's a money pit.

Escalator to the subway

Finally, I would like to see better regulated behavior of the transit police. Our ignorance of the system may have contributed, but an international city shouldn't make it difficult for even Americans to catch on.

Swiped from ontheworldmap.com

SOURCES:

John William Bills, "A Guide to Using Public Transport in Belgrade, Serbia," Culture Trip, 3 January 2018

World Bank Group, "Towards a Transit Oriented Development Approach for Belgrade," 3 September 2018

Okretnica Medakovic Park: Trolleybus route 29 ends at a fruit market!

This recent video, by garethtrooper, shows the variety of transit vehicles in rather typical traffic around Trg Slavia, 1.2 km from our hotel: