VINKOVCI-TOVARNIK RAILWAY LINE REOPENS FOR PASSENGER TRAINS

VINKOVCI/TOVARNIK, Jan 27 (Hina) - The first passenger train for the Croatian border railway station of Tovarnik (eastern Croatia), departed from Vinkovci at 14.40 hrs Monday for the first time in the last five and half years. The train was seen off by many Vinkovci citizens and displaced persons. The 70-minute-long journey by train through a dozen Croatian villages, currently under the UNTAES control, passed off peacefully. At Tovarnik the train and passengers were welcomed by the train dispatcher and the railway station's staff in that eastern Croatian border town. The train remained at Tovarnik about twenty minutes and then ran back to Vinkovci. By today's journey to Tovarnik by train, Croatian Railways services are reincluded in the international railway traffic from Ljubljana via Zagreb to Belgrade and toward the Near East. The international railway line section from Zagreb to Tovarnik will soon connect the West with the Near East. The restoration of (railway) traffic from Vinkovci to Tovarnik will step up the process of peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area, said Croatian Railways (HZ) general director, Marijan Klaric who was on the first train from Vinkovci to Tovarnik. As of Tuesday, two pairs of passenger trains will regularly travel along this 35-kilometre-long railway section between Vinkovci and Tovarnik. They depart from Vinkovci at 07.35 and 14.40 hrs, and leave Tovarnik at 09.50 and 16.25 hrs. The travelling will take 67 minutes, and diesel locomotives will draw the trains at speed up to 40 kilometres an hour. Security and safety of railway line section and traffic will be ensured UNTAES members and the Transitional Police. Besides Croatian railway workers, 38 Serb railmen from the Croatian Danubian area, employed in the Croatian Railways, are to work at the section. A ticket from Vinkovci to Tovarnik will cost 12 kuna (3,5 German marks) and a return ticket will be 19,6 kuna. They can be bought on train. During the first journey on Monday, passengers of the train included Croatian officials, Croatian Railways representatives, UNTAES civilian affairs chief, Gerard Fischer, Croatian reporters and a small number of displaced people. At the Fischer's request, last carriages of the train had to be unfastened at the station of Vinkovci before the departure and passengers in those cars could not participate in the first journey. The UNTAES official explained that he had demanded such move as he could not guarantee security of passengers in the last part of the train. Since June 1996, Croatian Railways Vinkovci department's workers have been repairing the Vinkovci-Tovarnik railway line. However, the electrical contact grid is still damaged, and railway stations' buildings are mostly destroyed. The repairs on the railway line section have cost 6 million kuna (1.7 million German marks). The reopening of other railway lines in the Croatian Danubian area are planned to be in next months. The Beli Manastir-Osijek railway line is due to open in February this year, the Vinkovci-Vrapcana-Privlaka-Drenovci and the Vinkovci-Vukovar Borovo-Erdut railway lines are to open in April, while the Vinkovci-Gabos-Osijek and Osijek-Dalj railway lines will be included in the traffic in May 1997, according to the Croatian Railways general director's office. (hina) mš 272127 MET jan 97