The tourist train on the Sarajevo-Vareš route could soon become a major tourist attraction in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a joint project of the Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Municipality of Vareš and the Tourist Board of the Zenica-Doboj Canton, with the aim of promoting the natural beauty, cultural heritage and local gastronomy of this region. The first test run is planned for July this year.
The railway connecting Vareš and Sarajevo could soon take on a completely new meaning, becoming a tourist attraction in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thanks to the cooperation of the Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Municipality of Vareš and the Tourist Board of the Zenica-Doboj Canton, an initiative has been launched to introduce a special railway line intended for tourists. Citizens are welcoming this idea with great interest and hope that the train will start operating soon.
This line could open up many tourist opportunities in the Municipality of Vareš.
If everything goes according to plan, the first test run of the tourist train on the Sarajevo-Vareš route will begin in July. An old locomotive with adapted carriages will offer passengers a view of natural beauty, historical sights and local gastronomy.
“The railway takes you from Breza to Vareš, which goes through 20 tunnels and the valley of the river Stavnja and enters a protected zone to connect Sarajevo with Vareš as a tourist destination and to bring back that shine,” says the Mayor of the Municipality of Vareš, Zdravko Marošević.
“What is important is that, after that test run of the train, tourist agencies will give their maximum contribution in terms of designing tours to Vares after the arrival of the train, when it goes into practice,” adds Šaban Ibrišimović, director of the ZDK Tourist Board.
This train will represent an opportunity to revive Vareš and strengthen the domestic tourist offer.
“It is a new tourist product on the tourism market, and the special significance is that it is in the area of the municipality of Vareš, which was in economic stagnation until the opening of the mine,” says Ibrišimović.
“This is the interest of the tourist organizations, this is our interest and when we combine all of this, then success is inevitable. We have concluded that destinations like this should be brought closer to the capital city of Sarajevo and its people,” says Mayor Marošević.
When we asked, the Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina said that activities on the implementation of the project have already been initiated, and that the technical details are still being defined. In the meantime, the idea of a tourist train on the Sarajevo–Vareš route is already emerging as a potential new attraction on the Bosnian-Herzegovinian tourist map.
