Macedonia Capital Readies for Long-Awaited Trams

What Skopje’s Tramway might look like

If all goes according to plan, the tender for a concession will be issued in May or June and in two or three years’ time Skopje’s first trams should be up and running, the city hall has said.

“The feasibility study has shown that the project will be on the brink of profitability. That’s why the city will be able to offer subsidies to the concessionary firm and even participate in the investment,” Mayor Trajanovski said.
 
The concessionary firm chosen to operate the system for 35 years will have to build a 15-kilometre stretch of line and to obtain at least 20 trams.

Trajanovski said companies from France, Poland, Croatia, Germany and Czech Republic had already shown interest in the project.
 
Skopje’s public transport system currently relies on a fleet of some 500 buses.
 
The authorities last year bought over 300 new buses to completely replace the old fleet. Another 200 buses that criss-cross Skopje are owned by private companies.

The city of 750,000 has been mulling the tram option for some 30 years as a more efficient and ecologically friendly method of getting people to and from work.

In the late 1980s the idea went to a city referendum, but most Skopjans then did not favour having to directly fund construction of the tram network themselves, as was proposed.

The most recent attempt to revive the idea came from the previous mayor, Trifun Kostovski, who ordered a feasibility study in 2009 and started preparation works on the ground. But enthusiasm for the idea faded when Kostovski’s term ended that year.

Mayor Trajanovski had been silent on the tram option until the end of last year when he announced his support for the project.