It has been mentioned for more than half a century that Beograd gets metro. Plans have been arriving in recent years, various construction start dates have been talked about, the opening dates of the first lines have been announced. In 2018, Aya Jung distributed paper tickets during the election campaign, and seven years later, new plans are arriving that change one of the announced routes.
The latest draft plan for the general regulation of rail systems in Belgrade, which is available for public inspection, envisages changes to the second metro line, whose route from the planned metro station Blok 18 to the planned metro station Južni Bulevar has been corrected in relation to the solution defined by the Plan for the general regulation of rail systems.
According to the earlier decision, which was open for public inspection in 2023, the route of the second line included the Manjež and Mackenzijeva stations. Instead of them, the new plan envisages a station on Trg Slavija, the construction of which includes the Mitic hole area, as well as the Karađorđev Park station, in the immediate vicinity of the railway station of the same name and at the entrance to the railway tunnel, writes eKapija.
The Karađorđev Park station will be, as stated, one of the key transit hubs in the city, as it will enable connecting the metro with tram and bus lines, as well as with the stop of the city-suburban railway (Beovoza).
This, as stated in the plan, achieves a high level of intermodality of the public transport system in Belgrade.
How far has the metro come?
Not very far.
The construction of the subway in Belgrade began in November 2021, with works on the infrastructure and the embankment of the future depot in Makiško polje.
However, the actual construction of stations and digging of tunnels through which the metro will pass has not yet taken place, and according to the latest announcements, the construction of stations should begin at the end of 2025.
It was not the first deadline and the first announcement of works.
All Belgrade's announced metros
According to promises, Belgrade was supposed to get a metro several times.
"Any Belgrade government that does not complete the first phase of the metro by the end of 2008 can be considered a failure," said Nenad Bogdanović, the mayor of Belgrade in the period from 2004 to 2007.
In 2010, Dragan Đilas stated for the Beta agency that the construction of the metro will begin in 2012.
In 2016, the then mayor Sinisa Mali announced that the construction of the metro should start at the end of 2018.
"In 2030, Belgrade will have two metro lines with a length of 42 kilometers, with 44 stations. Belgrade 2030, the future starts now," it was stated later in a promo video about the Belgrade Metro.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, then announced that the first line of the Belgrade metro (Železnik - Mirjevo) should be completed in 2028, and then that deadline was also postponed.
Completion of the first metro line in Belgrade, originally planned for 2028, it was moved to the end of 2030, announced at the end of last year PUC "Belgrade Metro and Train".
Pochetkom August 2025. the first phase of research for the metro in Belgrade has been completed. It was about the initial geological research, followed by the collection of permits for the second phase.
A brief history of the subway in Belgrade
The first idea of building a subway appeared in the twenties and thirties of the last century. Almost three decades later, due to the sudden increase in the population, in 1958 the architect Nikola Dobrović proposed the construction of the first metro line that would go along the route Kalemegdan - Terazije - Slavija - Čubura. After that, the study of the Belgrade Metro was published in 1968, based on the General Urban Plan from 1950.
Then, in 1972, a new General Urban Plan appeared, which predicted the development of Belgrade into a city of two million people, as well as traffic solutions that would make that development harmonious. The backbone of the city's transport system would then be the metro and the regional metro.
More than fifty years have passed since then. In the meantime, the lines have been changed, and despite strong announcements and deadlines - Belgrade still does not have a metro and, by all accounts, it is far from it.
Impact on traffic jams
In recent years, the famous Belgrade rush hour, i.e. the time when there are the biggest traffic jams in the city, no longer exists, as the rush hour has turned from a few hours a day into an all-day one.
Construction works, as well as the closure of part of the streets around the National Assembly building, due to Ćaciland, contribute to the large crowd in the city.
Many agree that the metro could reduce traffic congestion, but what some point to is that the first line of the metro will not go through the city to a greater extent and thus really relieve the traffic, which in Belgrade is at the limit of tolerability for both drivers and passengers.
The Faculty of Civil Engineering dissociated itself from the story of the subway before 2022, due to disagreement with the projected route of the first line, which, in their opinion, "should connect the old and new parts of the city."
For them, the proposed routes are not a good solution, because they will not relieve traffic in the most critical parts of the city. On the contrary, they believe that "the largest part of the city has been permanently left without a metro or even without a rational connection with the metro, and all this at the cost of huge investments."
