Transport in Albania
In the early
1990s, the rock-strewn roadways, unstable rail lines, and obsolete telephone network crisscrossing
Albania represented the remnants of the marked improvements that were made after
World War II.
Enver Hoxha's xenophobia and lust for control had kept Albania isolated, however, as the communications revolution transformed the wider world into a global village. Even internal travel amounted to something of a luxury for many Albanians during communism's ascendancy. For years, peasants needed special passes to visit nearby districts, and until
1990 the government banned private ownership of automobiles. Urban mass transit consisted primarily of bus lines for ferrying workers between home and work. Breakdowns in
Tirana's bus lines sometimes forced employees to walk to work or pay for rides in the beds of passing trucks. The communications system sustained severe damage in the chaos of the economic collapse as people ripped down telephone lines to use as fencing. Despite generally deteriorating conditions, the importation of fleets of used cars and buses and popular hunger for contact with the outside world raised hopes that matters would improve.
*Total: 447 km
**Standard gauge: 447 km 1.435-m gauge (2001 est.)
Albania's standard-gauge rail lines linked
Shkodër with
Durrës,
Tirana,
Elbasan,
Pogradec,
Ballsh, and
Vlorë. The country's only international rail link, opened in
1986, connected
Shkodër with
Yugoslavia's rail system. The connection is now made through
Montenegro. Albania's communist government focused on developing new rail lines to serve mining regions and the coastal plain. According to official figures, Albania's railways in
1987 and
1988 carried about 33 percent of the country's total freight tonnage for that period. The opening of the rail link with Yugoslavia facilitated the movement of goods to
Europe, and Yugoslav railways reportedly shipped 174,300 tons of Albanian goods in the first half of
1990, a 19.4 percent increase over the first half of
1989. None of Albania's railways was electrified. In
1991 vandals and thieves caused so much damage to the tracks and rolling stock that the rail system's transport capacity was cut in half; operations later ceased altogether.
Railway links with adjacent countries
*
Serbia - no
*
Montenegro - yes - defunct
*
R. of Macedonia - no
*
Greece - no
* Total: 18,000 km
** Paved: 5,400 km
** Unpaved: 12,600 km (1998 est.)
 |
Rough roads in Albania |
The total length of Albania's roads had more than doubled in about three decades, and by the
1980s almost all of the country's remote mountain areas were connected, at least by dirt roads, with the capital city and ports. The country's roads, however, were generally narrow, poorly marked, pocked with holes, and in the early
1990s often crowded with pedestrians and people riding mules, bicycles, and horse-drawn carts. Even in tiny villages, hundreds of people of all ages gathered daily along main roads waving their arms seeking rides, and gangs of children often blocked rural highways hoping to coax foreign travelers into tossing them candy. Heavy snowfalls cut off some mountain areas for weeks at a time. Central government funding of local road maintenance effectively ended in
1991, and the breakdown of repair vehicles because of a lack of spare parts threatened to close access to some remote areas. A group of
Greek construction companies signed a protocol with the Albanian government in July
1990 to build a 200 kilometer road across the southern part of the country, extending from the Albanian-Greek border to
Durrës. The project was scheduled to last four years and cost US$500 million.
Despite the appalling quality of Albania's roads, most of the country's freight was conveyed over them in a fleet of about 15,000 smoke-belching trucks. According to official figures, in
1987 Albania's roadways carried about 66 percent of the country's total freight tonnage. In
1991 the Albanian government lifted the decades-old ban on private-vehicle ownership. The country's roads, once almost devoid of motor traffic, began filling up with recklessly driven cars that had been snapped up in used-car lots across
Europe. Car imports numbered about 1,500 per month, and a black-market car lot began operating just off Tirana's main square. Traffic in the capital remained light, but traffic lights and other control devices were urgently needed to deal with the multiplying number of privately owned cars. Albanian entrepreneurs also imported used Greek buses and started carrying passengers on intercity routes that did not exist or had been poorly serviced during the communist era. Gangs of hijackers and thieves, who preyed on truck and automobile traffic, made road travel hazardous in some regions.
http://www.medialb.com/forumi/foto/61926_1.jpghttp://www.girovaghi.supereva.it/toscana/autostrada.jpgMany of the country roads are either being repaired or have been repaired. The construction of the north-south and east-west are almost completed. By 2007 the main cities will have been linked and a new highway system linking Tirana with Prishtina, Podgorica, Skopje and Athens will have been completed. In 2004 a deal was signed to connect the port of Durres with City of Prishtina in Kosova with a six lane highway. Construction has begun and the highway is expected to be finished by 2008.
* Total: 43 km plus Albanian sections of
Shkodër Lake,
Ohër Lake, and
Big Prespa Lake (1990)
Albania's main seaports are
Durrës,
Vlorë,
Sarandë, and
Shëngjin. By
1983 there was regular ferry, freight, and passenger services from Durrës to
Trieste,
Italy. In
1988 ferry service was established between Sarandë and the Greek island of
Corfu. A regular lake ferry linked the
Macedonian town of
Ohrid with
Pogradec. The estimated total displacement of Albania's merchant fleet was 56,000 tons in
1986. The limited capacity of the wharves at Durrës caused severe bottlenecks in the distribution of foreign food aid in
1991.
:Crude oil 196 km; petroleum products 55 km; natural gas 64 km (1996)The construction of 1.2 billion dollar pipeline has begun in 2005. This will connect the port of Burgas in Bulgaria with the port of Vlora in Albania. It is expected to ship 750,000 barrels of crude oil each day.
:
Durrës,
Sarandë,
Shëngjin,
Vlorë* Total: 7 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 13,423 GRT/20,837 DWT
* By type: cargo 7, includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: Croatia 1, Honduras 1 (2002 est.)
In
1977 Albania's government signed an agreement with Greece, opening the country's first air links with non-communist Europe. As a result,
Olympic Airways was the first non-communist airline to fly into Albania. By
1991 Tirana had air links with many major European cities, including
Paris,
Rome,
Zürich,
Vienna, and
Budapest. Tirana was served by a small airport located twenty-eight kilometers from the capital at the village of
Rinas. Albania had no regular domestic air service. A Franco-Albanian joint venture launched Albania's first private airline,
Ada Air, in
1991. The company offered flights in a thirty-six-passenger airplane four days each week between Tirana and
Bari,
Italy, and a charter service for domestic and international destinations.
* Total: 12 (2002 est.)
Kukes airport is to open in early 2006. Making this the second civilian airport in Albania. Plans are on the table for an international airport in Vlore and Sarande.
Total paved runways
3
** 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2002)
** 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2002)
Total unpaved runways
8
** 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
** under 914 m: 4 (2002)
** 914 to 1,523 m: 2
** over 3,047 m: 1
Heliports
*Total: 1 (2002 est.)
* 2002
*
Mother Teresa Airport Official Website*
Albanian Railways Official Website*
Ministry of Public Works of Albania (official site)*
Albania
