BG Voz

BG Voz (Serbian Cyrillic: БГ Воз; stylized as BG:VOZ) is a commuter rail system that serves the city of Belgrade, Serbia. It is operated by the "Beogradski metro i voz" public utility company and connects the central parts of Belgrade to its distant suburbs. Urban trains carry passengers between the termini of Ovča, Batajnica and Resnik, while suburban ones reach towards Mladenovac and Lazarevac in the south.

The system runs across 35 stations on four primary and three supplementary lines. The main lines meet either at Belgrade Centre station or at Karađorđe's Park, while the supplementary lines pass via Belgrade Centre to reach Zemun. BG Voz is linked to the city's ground transport, with three stations – Karađorđe's Park, Vukov Spomenik and New Belgrade – served by trams and Belgrade Center served by trolleybuses.

Used by some 20,000 passengers every day, BG Voz has been described as the fastest transportation mode in Belgrade. However, it is also the least maintained, with common issues including the trains' age, irregular departures, overcrowding and poor hygienic conditions. Plans exist both to introduce new trains and construct additional lines, which are aimed to connect Makiš to Karaburma and Zemun Polje to the future National Stadium.

History

BG Voz started after an older system called Beovoz, which opened in 1992. At its busiest point in 2002, Beovoz went to places like Pančevo, Inđija, Valjevo, Velika Plana, and Požarevac, as well as Belgrade's southern suburbs. BG Voz began with its Line 1 in 2010, and as it grew, Beovoz was slowly stopped. By December 2017, Beovoz was only going to Pančevo before it closed down completely.

Infrastructure

BG Voz uses the same tracks as the national Serbian Railways. Most of its stations are either raised up high or at ground level, like the ones at New Belgrade and Ovča. Only two stations are underground, located in central Belgrade: Karađorđe's Park and Vukov Spomenik. These two stations are connected by tunnels that go under the city.

BG Voz, along with buses, is one of two ways to travel across the three sides of Belgrade, which are separated by the Sava and Danube rivers. The four main lines start together from Ovča and go to Karađorđe's Park. There, they split up: Line 1 and Line 3 go to Belgrade Center, while Line 2 and Line 4 continue to Resnik through Rakovica. From Belgrade Center, Line 1 goes across the Sava river to Batajnica through New Belgrade, and Line 3 connects to Rakovica and joins Lines 2 and 4. The trains cross the Danube river using the Pančevo Bridge and the Sava river using the New Railway Bridge.

Lines in service

Line 1

Line 1 travels from Ovča in the northeast to Batajnica in the northwest, passing through Belgrade Centre. It is the oldest line, with the first trains starting in September 2010 between Pančevo Bridge and New Belgrade. The line grew over time, reaching Batajnica in April 2011 and Ovča in December 2016. Two new stops, Altina and Kamendin, opened in March 2022. Today, Line 1 has 15 stations.

Line 2

Line 2 runs between Ovča and is the shorter urban line. It started in April 2018, connecting five stations including Resnik, Kijevo, Kneževac, Rakovica, and Belgrade Center. Later that year, it was extended to Ovča and now goes through Karađorđe's Park instead of Belgrade Centre. Line 2 has 11 stations. There is also a version of Line 2 that links Zemun to Resnik via Belgrade Center.

Line 3

Line 3 began service in September 2019, linking Mladenovac to Belgrade Centre. Both versions of the line go through Belgrade Centre, then split to reach either Ovča or Zemun. The line has 20 stations and runs three times each day.

Line 4

Line 4 started on December 15, 2019. It connects the towns of Lazarevac and Barajevo to Resnik, Belgrade Centre, and the left bank of the Danube. It has two routes: Lazarevac-Resnik and Lazarevac-Ovča, operating six times per day. The longer route has 15 stations in total, including Lazarevac, Vreoci, Stepojevac, Leskovac Kolubarski, Barajevo Centar, Bela Reka, Resnik, Kijevo, Kneževac, Rakovica, Belgrade center, Karađorđev Park, Vukov Spomenik, Pančevo Bridge, Krnjača–most, Krnjača, Sebeš, and Ovča.