The planning and building After the
Berlin Congress in 1878,
Bosnia and Herzegovina came under the military administration of
Austria-Hungary. This change in circumstances allowed the construction of a railway network in the newly acquired areas to be accelerated, reversing the previous policy of isolating
Dalmatian ports from inland access. Military and strategic interests had priority in determining future routes over economic interests. Over the next several decades, a network of
narrow-gauge railways throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina were built, with a gauge width of 760 mm, often called the
Bosnian gauge. In the period from 1879 to 1891, several railways were connected on the route Bosanski Brod-Zenica-Sarajevo-Mostar-Metković. After the construction of the railway
Bosanski Brod-
Sarajevo, the plan was to build the railway from Sarajevo-
Banja Luka via
Travnik and
Jajce, and further towards Aržano and
Split (Sinjska rera), as well as the
Una railway.
The Hungarians opposed that plan, believing that the
Austrian part of the Monarchy would benefit more from that railway. was adopted, although it was not the best solution in the long run due to the shallow and muddy Neretva and the impossibility of docking larger vessels in the port of
Metković. The first measurements began in 1879, and in the summer of 1884, the construction of the first section from
Metković to
Mostar began, for which all the material was brought via the port in Metković.
The line opens The line was opened in 1891 in the
Bosnian gauge of 760mm. With the construction of the railway, the port of
Metković grew into one of the most important ports in
Dalmatia, and the first port in Dalmatia to receive a railway line. A 648 m tunnel was also cut through the Ivan mountains. Special steam locomotives of the 97 series pulled the trains on these two sections. The total length of the railway from Metković to Sarajevo was , and the construction costs were 19,900,000
Dinars, and built in a total of four stages, namely: • Metković - Mostar, 43.678 km, put into traffic on 14 May 1885. • Mostar - Ostrožac, 65.315 km, put into traffic on 22 August 1888. • Ostrožac – Konjic, 13.030 km, put into traffic on 10 November 1889. • Konjic - Sarajevo, 55.432 km, put into traffic on 1 August 1891. In addition to the port in Metković, with the subsequent construction and commissioning of the Gabela -
Zelenika railway line, Bosnia was also connected to the port in
Gruž near
Dubrovnik. With the subsequent change of the route from Raštelica to Pazarić (complete abolition of the cogwheel on that section) and the construction of a new tunnel through Ivan planina with a length of 3,223 m between the two world wars, the cogwheel was partially abolished on 9 April 1931. Trains used additional locomotives in the so-called pushing or harnessing. Despite the subsequent works, the section was the bottleneck of the entire railway and limited the capacity to 1,000,000 net tons per year, and like most railways built at the time in BiH, this entire railway was built well below the standards for railways of this type.
Continuation to Ploče Although there was an idea of extending the railway to the mouth of the Neretva, it became relevant in the 1920s as part of the project to connect
Belgrade via
Sarajevo with a new port on the sea, considering that the port in
Metković could not meet growing needs. There were suggestions that the port should be in
Klek or
Neum, and the ports in
Split and
Dubrovnik were also against the new port. At the initiative of the
Sarajevo Chamber of Commerce and Crafts, in late 1922 and early 1923,
the Association of Engineers and Architects carried out the first measurements and surveys of the terrain at the site of the future port in
Ploče. Subsequently, at the railway conference held in 1926, it was decided that the future port would be in Ploče. However, construction was constantly delayed due to conflicting interests regarding the future port. The technical study was completed only in 1936, with the port project in Ploče accepted 1938, and work began on the entire route to
Ploče. The entire section had five stations, four bridges and five tunnels. By the end of 1940, almost 80% earthworks on the embankments, five tunnels, twenty-seven buildings, and other structures were complete. With the
German and Italian attack on
Yugoslavia, all works were suspended. In 1942, Italy completed the construction of the railway, and after Italy's capitulation, Germany rebuilt the partially damaged railway. At the end of the
Second World War, the railway damaged by the withdrawal of German forces was being rebuilt again, and on 15 July 1945, the entire length from the port in Ploče to Sarajevo was put into traffic.
Postwar modernization at
Čapljina 1968. (narrow gauge line towards
Dubrovnik) One of the necessary conditions for the industrialization of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) after the Second World War was the reconstruction of 80% of the railway network destroyed or disabled in the war, the modernization and transition to a
standard gauge (1435 mm), in order to increase rail capacity. In
Bosnia and Herzegovina, new or modernized existing railways were built:
Brčko -
Banovići,
Vrpolje -
Šamac -
Sarajevo,
Doboj -
Banja Luka and others. It was also necessary to modernize the Sarajevo–Ploče railway, considering that the port in Ploče was the most favourable outlet for
BiH industry to the
Adriatic Sea. The biggest problem was solving the most difficult section of the railway over Ivan Mountain. Research works and studies lasted from 1948 to 1958, during which time 13 possible solutions were analyzed. The adopted solution provided for the maximum use of the existing tunnel through Ivan mountain and the settlements and industries along the existing narrow-gauge railway. The five-year plan established that the railway should be built by the end of 1962. Work on the railway began in 1958, but due to a lack of financial resources, the intensity was limited on the Bradina - Konjic section. Work only intensified in 1961, and the entire length of the line was completed in 1964. Construction took place in three stages: • building construction capacities and a smaller number of tracks • electrification and construction of electrical relay security of stations • remote traffic control, automatic track block, and completion of tracks in stations. The last train of the narrow-gauge railway left Ploče on 5 November 1966. The correspondent of
Slobodna Dalmacija wrote on that occasion: Parts of the original line were flooded by the creation of a number of
hydroelectric dams along the river. The standard gauge line was officially opened on 26 and 27 November 1966. The new railway was put into traffic on 1 December 1966, and traction was initially performed by diesel locomotives because the railway was in the first stage of construction. The electrification of the railway and the electrical relay protection of the stations was completed and put into operation in May 1969. The final completion of the works on the railway was in 1972, with the completion of the remote traffic control system and power plants for powering the catenary network. The final price of the works on the railway amounted to 1.15 billion dinars.
Modernization Effects (red) With the electrification of the railway, goods traffic recorded constant growth. By 1969, the turnover of goods at
Ploče railway station amounted to 1.03 million tons. Already in 1971, the turnover doubled (2.09 million tons), reaching 2.86 million tons in 1977 and 3.61 million tons in 1987. At the same time, passenger traffic was declining: 482,000 passengers departed from the Ploče railway station in 1969, 384,000 in 1971, 296,000 in 1977, and 173,000 in 1987. Due to the integration of the Port of Ploče and ŽTP Sarajevo in 1969, work began on expanding the port's capacity in Ploče. The increase in the volume of freight traffic on the railway was accompanied by an increase in traffic in the port of Ploče. Thus, traffic in the port increased from 1.1 million tons in 1969 to 2.3 million tons in 1971, when an oil-receiving facility with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year was built. The increase in the capacity of the port in Ploče continued with the construction of a terminal for the transport of live livestock, wood, grain, and alumina, so the port in Ploče acquired the conditions for transit cargo from Central European countries. Already in 1977, the traffic of the port amounted to 2.95 million tons, and thanks to the development of large companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Željezara Zenica, KHK Lukavac, Aluminij Mostar) was constantly increasing, so in 1987 it exceeded 4.5 million tons.
Breakup of Yugoslavia With the independence of Croatia in 1991, the Croatian section of the line was transferred to the newly formed railway company Hrvatske željeznice (HŽ), while the remaining section north of
Metković remained within Bosnia and Herzegovina (then still a constituent republic of
SFRY). This section was transferred to Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine (ŽFBH) in 1993 following Bosnia's
declaration of independence. On the eve of the war itself, in 1992, a large part of the railway infrastructure in BiH was modernized, including the rolling stock and traction vehicles, and the tracks were overhauled According to data from Željeznice FBiH, war damage to facilities and infrastructure in BiH amounted to about 854 million US dollars. The port in Ploče also suffered indirect war damage, which during the war operated at 5-10% of its capacity, and the pre-war volume of traffic was overtaken only in 2008 (5.1 million tons). ==Current status==