Transport in Pristina

Kryeqyteti i Kosovës-Prishtina

Pristina's transport forms the hub of road, rail and air networks in Kosovo. The city's buses, trains and planes together all serve to maintain a high level of connectivity between Pristina many different districts and beyond. Analysis of Traffic Police have shown that from 240.000 cars registered in Republic of Kosovo, around 100.000 cars or 41% of them are from the region of Pristina.^[1]

Roads

Afternoon in Pristina

PRISHTINA 2013 (15)

Roads in Pristina were in a very bad condition after the Kosovan war, forcing government investment to improve this section. ^[2] Now the infrastructure in Pristina is in a good state. All the roads are asphalted, those that connect the major villages with the urban centre.^[3] Roads that connect Pristina with others cities appear the main routes of Kosovo's network. Road M2, starts from the North with Central Serbia, passes through Pristina and reaches South border with Macedonia. In its south end it links Pristina with European corridor X. Road M25 coming from Nish until east west administrative line with Central Serbia, passes through Pristina and Prizren reaching the border with Albania. This road is becoming more and more important for its south part linking Kosovo with Albania where road construction of Rrëshen – Blinisht – Kukës is ongoing. Road M9, from east administrative line with Central Serbia through Pristina to Peja until the border with Montenegro. ^[4]

Circular route around the city of Pristina and Germia forest will serve the village of Mramuer and the village of Lugare and also the traffic in the direction of Gjilan and the East side of the city. Expect this, the inside circular and the center one will be created with the objective to run down the center of the city. The structure of the axis is a good base for an exact system of public transport, filled with buses, which will serve the city in general. This will make an impact with the high level of motorist and low private transport. Main lines of the traffic will move toward Badovci lake with the excising axis through center, with direct link to Airport, which will move through main station in Fushe Kosove.^[5]

Road Casualties in Pristina

• The following table shows the number of fatal on the roads of Pristina, over the past four years^[6]

Airports

Pristina is served by one airport named "Adem Jashari" and it located about 15 km in south-west of Pristina .^[7] Having a modern terminal is the reason for handling over million passengers per year and to be considered as the most frequented airport in the region. In year 2006 PIA was awarded the best Airport 2006 award. It handled more than 1.5 million passengers in 2012.And In 2013 the number of passengers was increased for more than 100.000 that was served by 28 airlines in 33 destinations, in 16 countries including the most European centers.^[8] After the decision of Kosovo Government-Public Private Partnership in August 2011 for concession the management of the PIA went under the responsibilities of Turkish-French Consortium ‘Limak & Airports de Lyon”for 20 years.^[9]

History

Pristina International Airport

The history of PIA begins in 1965 when it was opened only for domestic flights to and from Belgrade the capital of Yugoslavia.^[10] In 1985 the IT unit has been equipment with modern technology in compliance with ICAO standards. Just in 1990 the international flights began to run to Germany and Switzerland. A new short-lived era began for the airport after the KOSOVO war in 1999 when in charge came NATO and KFOR and changing it to a military airport. Just in the begging of year 2000 the airport returned to its own control with 45 employees in total. After the war the airport was damaged and it took 2 years and 50m euro to make the airport start operating properly. The airport was totally reorganized and rebuilt in a 3 year period from 2002 to 2005 which helped offering a wide range of quality to the approximately 800.000 up to 1.000.000 passengers. As the results of different projects about security and safety Pristine international Airport "Adem Jashari" was certified from Icelandic civil Aviation Authority in 2008.^[9]

After Concession

Pristina International Airport - new terminal

After 2011, when the airport went under the control of the Turkish-France company "Limak Aeroport de Lyon”,^[9] where foreseen to be expanded to 25000 meter square out from the 100 million investments which must be done according to the Kosovo-Government and Limak contract. The investments finished in the end of 2013 where the was expanded 15000 meter and 30 million more than is said in contract. Now the PIA is one of the best airports in the region with the capacity to serve more than 3 million passengers, with parking space for about 1700 cars and a surface of 42000 meters. Following the 130 million investment and the completion of the new terminal, the airport is now trying to create a public transport service to bring passengers to and from the capital.^[11]

Pristina Bus Station

Buses in Kosovo run frequently are reasonably fast, clean and good value. Pristina's bus station serves all Kosovo and international destinations. The main station is located 2 km southwest of the city near Bul”Bill Clinton, To go there you need to take taxi, or Public Transport you can take Bus Line 10. For parking you need to buy ticket which cost 1 euro.

Long Distance Buses

International Bus

^[12]

International Bus Line

^[13]

Urban Buses

Buses in Pristina

Urban Traffic covers only buss lines, the line 4 and 3A. Other lines are covered by private operators. To improve the services of public transport, the municipality of Pristina has decided to invest around 2 million euros for "Trafiku Urban" to buy new busses.^[14]

Urban Bus lines

Urban Traffic Map

Taxi

Random Taxi in Pristina

There are several taxi services in Pristina with more or less same conditions. Starting kilometer is 1.5 EUR increasing for 0.6 per km. Generally, at peak times, driving from one end of Pristina to the other one should not exceed EUR 10. There are some individual licensed taxi drivers with taxi meters but sometimes they offer of-the-meter prices, sometimes it is more convenient but not always.^[15]

Scooter Taxi

This traffic in Pristina approximately has over 100.000 vehicles every day including cars, taxis, trucks and buses!^[1] The capital of Kosovo already has a particular from other cities. Except the large number of taxis, in Pristina started another form of taxi-service. The company Scootaxi started offering transport services with scooters.^[16] There is a new start up called Scootaxi, by providing transportation with environment scooters! This is a fast way of transport and easy to maneuver during traffic rush-hour. Scooters are comfortable for passengers and also cheap. Scootaxi gives the possibility to customers to travel all around Pristina for only 1 euro.^[16] You will travel all around Pristina in a good comfort and company of experienced drivers. While there is an application for iOS and Android, which has also some interesting features, while gives the client the ability to order taxi through the app.^[17] Scootaxis are also monitored with GPS from the company that limits the speed of scooters to 50 km/h, to offer a maximum level of security for the costumers.^[17]

Cycling

Pristina as regards bicycle does not meet their requirements for driving around town. Pristina offers 15 rout around Pristina it have 120 km track. Pristina offers a good opportunity in Germia Park, where you can pick up the for rent. The price is 2 euro for 1 hour.^[18] Besides hilly suburbs, Pristina is not especially bike-friendly with curbside drains, potholes and busy traffic.^[19]

Train

The first Railway line in Kosovo was constructed in 1874 starting from Hani i Elezit through Fushe Kosova and ending up in Mitrovica. Later Kosovo finished constructing an existing railway network throughout Kosovo territory.^[20] Kosovo Railways throughout Kosovo territory has a network of 333,451 km.^[20] Expect industrial railway lines which are not included in those statistic which covers 103, 4 km of railway.^[20] Railway lines are linkage between all most important centers of Kosovo except Gjakova and Gjilani, which are not covered. Serbian Railways operates line between Kraljevo and North Mitrovica.

Railway lines also connect Kosovo with neighbor countries such as Macedonia and through them with other countries worldwide.^[20]

Pristina Train Station

Pristina effectively has two train stations. Pristina railway station lies west of the center near the end of Str. Garibaldi while Fushë Kosovë railway station is Kosovo's railway hub.^[21] Pristina is serviced by a train that travels through Pristina to Skopje daily. The train picks up passengers in Pristina at 1:00 PM at the main train station, which is extremely easy to miss. Pristina station is located in the industrial section of Pristina, immediately down the hill from the Dragodan neighborhood on Tirana Blvd.^[22]

A journey to Skopje will take you approximately 4 hours.^[22]

Tickets are relatively cheap, starting from 0.30 euros to 3 euros for traveling inside borders.^[23] Kosovo Railways offer some kind of tickets: One direction ticket, two directions ticket, ticket with discount (used from Students, pensioners), monthly ticket.^[23] For daily lines inside the borders, Kosovo Railways on 2 October started the new line Pristina - Peja for the passengers transport!^[24]

Kosovo Railways operate with regular daily trains:

• Pristina - Peja - Pristina^[25] Full train schedule for this line can be seen here: Pristina - Peja - Pristina
• Pristina - Hani i Elezit - Pristina^[25] Full train schedule for this line can be seen here: Pristina - Hani i Elezit - Pristina

Future

The number of cars in Pristina is supposed to be around 70.000 - 100.000, even though it is hard to have the exacts calculations, as the cars of 6 international institutions have to be numbered. In the other way there is a good amount of old cars, which are unusable.

As about the motors degree, according to Statistics Entity of Kosovo, in 2002, in Kosovo had around 113 cars in 1000 resident. If we compare with other European cities in Vienna there are 393 cars/1000 residents and in Stuttgart 549cars/1000 residents. Targeting a better development of Economy and while having in consideration favored geographic position of Pristina, motorcycle from 290 to 380 cars/1000 residents until 2030 is not impossible.^[5]

See also

• Kosovo Railways
• Pristina
• List of airlines of Kosovo
• List of airports by ICAO code: B
• Vehicle registration plates of Kosovo

References