Legal Acts in English

This Law shall regulate the management of railway infrastructure, performing railway transport activities, licensing of railway undertakings, access to railway infrastructure, service facilities and services, principles and procedures for determining and calculating prices of access to public railway infrastructure (hereinafter: access price) and prices of services in in connection with the performance of railway transport, capacity allocation of public railway infrastructure, industrial railways and industrial tracks, competencies of the Directorate for Railways (hereinafter: Directorate), passenger rights and public passenger transport services by rail of general economic interest.

The provisions of this Law shall apply to domestic and international railway traffic, unless otherwise determined by a ratified international treaty.

Certain terms, in terms of this Law, shall have the following meaning:

1) alternative transport route is another transport route between the same starting point and destination, if there is a possibility of replacement between two transport routes in the provision of freight or passenger transport services by the railway undertaking, which is specified in the Network Statement;

2) the train is properly assembled and hooked through towed vehicles with one or more towing vehicles or only the towing vehicle or more hooked towing vehicles are properly signalled, with the associated driving staff, operating according to the prescribed rules;

3) city railway is a railway with special traffic and technical characteristics whereby public transport is performed in the territory of a local self-government unit, i.e. in the territory of populated places within a local self-government unit;

4) urban and suburban transport is transport whose main purpose is to meet the transport needs of the city centre or conurbation, including border conurbation, as well as transport needs between that centre or conurbation and their surroundings;

5) single ticket is a ticket or tickets representing a contract of transport for the use of successive railway services provided by one or several railway undertakings;

6) additional services are services related to the performance of railway transport referred to in Article 15, paragraph 4 of this Law;

7) capacity allocation is the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity in the form of a train path performed by the infrastructure manager;

8) exploitation of public railway infrastructure is the allocation of train paths, traffic management and collection of access prices;

9) railway rolling stock are traction, towed and special purpose railway vehicles;

10) railway undertaking is a company or other legal entity registered for the predominant activity of providing railway transport of goods and/or passengers and whereto a license has been issued, with the obligation to provide traction, or providing only traction. A railway undertaking is also considered to be a company or other legal entity performing railway transport for its own needs and whereto a license for transport for its own needs has been issued;

11) railway area is the land area on which there is a railway, facilities, plants and devices that are directly used for performing railway traffic, the area under bridges and viaducts, as well as the area above the tunnel route;

12) congested infrastructure is a part of public railway infrastructure wherefor the demand for infrastructure capacity cannot be fully met during certain periods of time, and even after harmonization of different requirements for infrastructure capacities;

13) protective railway belt is a land belt on both sides of the railway in the width of 100 m, counting from the axis of the end tracks;

14) feasible alternative is access to another service facility that is economically acceptable to the railway undertaking and enables it to provide the service in question for the transport of goods or passengers;

15) Network Statement is a document detailing general rules, deadlines, procedures and criteria regarding the method of pricing and capacity allocation, including other relevant information necessary to be able to apply for infrastructure capacity;

16) industrial railway is a railway managed by an economic entity and used for the transport of goods and/or persons for their own needs;

17) industrial track is a railway track that connects to the network and serves for the delivery and dispatch of goods, as well as for final and other actions (loading, unloading, manoeuvring, etc.) in the railway transport of goods;

18) industrial track for own needs is an industrial track that is used exclusively for the needs of its owner, i.e. beneficiary;

19) infrastructure belt is a land belt on both sides of the railway in the width of 25 m, measured from the axis of the end tracks functionally serving for the use, maintenance and technological development of the infrastructure capacity;

20) public railway infrastructure includes the entire railway infrastructure constituting the network managed by the infrastructure manager, excluding lines and sidings (industrial lines and tracks), which are connected to the network;

21) public transport is the transport of persons or items that is available to everyone under equal conditions and is performed on the basis of a concluded contract on the transport of passengers or goods between the railway undertaking and the beneficiary of its services;

22) public transport of passengers of general interest includes railway transport services of passengers of general economic interest provided to the public on a non-discriminatory basis and continuously;

23) infrastructure capacity is the possible number of train routes for deployment on a certain part of the public railway infrastructure in a certain period;

24) gauge track is a secondary track specially intended for temporary accommodation of railway vehicles between two train entries;

25) Computerized System for Information and Reservations in Railway Transport (KSIRŽP) is a computerized system containing information on railway passenger services offered by railway undertakings, such as: schedule and timetable for passenger transport, availability of seats for passenger transport, prices and special conditions, accessibility of trains for persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility and the ways in which reservations can be made or tickets or single tickets issued to the extent that some or all of the means are available to beneficiaries;

26) conurbation is the merging of two or several settlements into one urban entity;

27) coordination is a procedure during which the infrastructure manager and the applicants for infrastructure capacity try to resolve conflict requests;

28) license is a document by which the licensing authority confirms the capacity of a company or other legal entity registered to perform public transport of goods and/or passengers to provide railway transport services as a railway undertaking, which may be limited to providing certain types of services or performing railway transport for own needs;

29) manipulative railway is a part of the railway infrastructure serving for the transport of goods for the needs of economic entities, if necessary and without a determined timetable;

30) international passenger transport includes the service of passenger transport by a train crossing at least one state border and where the main purpose of the service is to transport passengers between stations in different countries, where the train may be composed of different parts that may have different starting points and destinations, if all passenger cars cross at least one state border;

31) international transport of goods includes a transport service within which the train crosses at least one state border. The train may be connected and/or separated, and different parts may have different starting points and destinations, provided that all wagons cross at least one state border;

32) metro is a spatially independent high-capacity rail system for passenger transport in urban and suburban traffic with special structural and energy and propulsion characteristics;

33) network is a network of lines, including connecting and sidings, with elements of railway infrastructure, managed by the infrastructure manager, intended for railway transport of goods and/or passengers, as well as transport for own needs, which can be performed by railway undertakings according to the principle of transparent and non-discriminatory access to the network;

34) compensation for the obligation of public transport includes benefit, especially financial, which the competent body directly or indirectly provides from public funds during the period of implementation of the obligation of public transport or in connection with such period;

35) direct award is the award of a contract on the obligation of public transport to a certain railway undertaking without a prior tender procedure;

36) public passenger transport obligation is a request defined or determined by the competent body in order to provide public transport services by rail of general interest, which the railway undertaking, if it acted solely on commercial interests, would not accept or would not accept to the same extent or under the same conditions without compensation;

37) renewal of the railway infrastructure includes works of large volume of replacement of the element on the existing infrastructure, which do not change its overall functioning;

38) maintenance of railway infrastructure includes works performed in order to preserve the condition and capacity of the existing infrastructure;

39) framework agreement is a legally binding general agreement determining the rights and obligations of applicants for infrastructure capacity allocation and infrastructure managers in terms of infrastructure capacity to be allocated and prices to be charged for a period longer than the period of application of one valid timetable;

40) service facility operator is an entity responsible for the management of one or more service facilities or the provision of one or more services to railway undertakings referred to in Article 15 of this Law, including the management of railway infrastructure forming part of the service facility infrastructure;

41) public passenger transport operator is a railway undertaking providing public passenger transport services;

42) general rule is a measure that is applied without discrimination to all public transport services of passengers of the same type on certain routes for which the competent body is responsible;

43) basic services are services related to the performance of railway transport referred to in Article 15, paras. 1 and 2 of this Law;

44) the plan for improving the capacity of the infrastructure includes a measure or a series of measures with deadlines for their implementation in order to alleviate the limitations of the capacity of the infrastructure leading to the fact that a part of the infrastructure is declared congested infrastructure;

45) applicant for infrastructure capacity allocation means a railway undertaking or an international group of railway undertakings or other persons and legal entities, such as competent bodies, consignors, freight forwarders and combined transport operators, which have an interest in performing a public service or a commercial interest in obtaining infrastructure capacity;

46) ancillary services are services related to the performance of railway transport referred to in Article 15, paragraph 5 of this Law;

47) passenger transport is the transport of passengers by rail, which is available to the public, on the basis of a contract of transport, excluding the transport of passengers by other types of rail transport such as metro or trams;

48) transport of goods is the transport of goods by rail, which is available to the public, on the basis of a contract of transport;

49) transport for own needs is transport by rail performed by a company or other legal entity for own needs, i.e. for the needs of performing its activity, which includes activities related to construction, testing, maintenance or renewal of railway infrastructure or related to provision of services referred to in Article 15 of this Law;

50) border agreement is any agreement between two or several states whose purpose is to facilitate the provision of cross-border railway services;

51) ticket seller is any intermediary in the sale of railway services who concludes contracts for the transport of passengers and sells tickets on behalf of the railway undertaking or for own account;

52) railway belt is a land belt on both sides of the railway in the width of 8 m, in a populated area of 6 m, measuring from the axis of the end tracks, the land under the railway and the airspace in the height of 14 m. The railway belt shall also include the land area of service stations (stations, intersections, stops, crossroads, etc.) including all technical and technological facilities, installations and access and fire road to the nearest public road;

53) travel pass or season ticket is a ticket for an unlimited number of trips allowing the authorized holder to travel by rail in a certain direction or network during a certain period of time;

54) road crossing is a place of crossing of a railway line belonging to public railway infrastructure, industrial railway or industrial track and a road at the same level, which includes the crossing of those tracks with a pedestrian or bicycle path, 3 m wide measured from the track axis, including the space between the tracks when there are several tracks at the road crossing;

55) development of railway infrastructure includes network planning, financial and investment planning, as well as construction and modernization of infrastructure;

56) reasonable profit is the rate of return on equity that takes into account the risk, including income risk, or lack of such risk, suffered by the service facility operator and is consistent with the average rate for a given sector over the past years;

57) regional transport is a transport service whose main purpose is to meet the needs for transport in the region, including the cross-border area in accordance with a ratified international treaty;

58) timetable is an act of the public railway infrastructure manager determining the train traffic plan for the transport of passengers and goods, as well as for own needs on the public railway infrastructure during the period of validity of such timetable;

59) reservation is an authorization, on paper or in electronic form, which gives the right to the person being transported to a previously confirmed personalized transport arrangement;

60) goods means items that are transported in railway freight traffic;

61) freight corridor represents certain railways, including railway ferry lines in the territory between states, connecting two or more terminals, along the main transport route and, if necessary, along alternative transport routes and sections connecting them, including railway infrastructure and service facilities and services provided to railway undertakings;

62) transit is the passage through the territory of the Republic of Serbia without loading or unloading of goods, i.e. without embarking or disembarking passengers in the territory of the Republic of Serbia;

63) train path is the capacity of infrastructure necessary for train traffic between two places during a certain period;

64) tourist and museum railway is a railway with special traffic and technical characteristics, which transports passengers for tourist purposes, including transport by railway vehicles of museum value;

65) contract on conditions and manner of financing the management of public railway infrastructure is a contract between the competent body and the infrastructure manager referred to in Article 21 of this Law regulating mutual rights and obligations between the contracting parties;

66) contract on public transport obligation is a contract on public passenger transport services concluded by the public passenger transport operator and the competent body in accordance with this Law;

67) contract on passenger transport is a contract on transport with financial compensation or concluded free of charge between railway undertakings or ticket sellers and passengers for the provision of one or several transport services;

68) improvement of railway infrastructure (modernization) includes large-scale works on infrastructure improving its overall functioning;

69) infrastructure manager is a public enterprise or company responsible for the construction, operation, maintenance and renewal of public railway infrastructure on the network, as well as for participation in its development within the established general policy of infrastructure development and financing;

70) station manager is an organizational entity entrusted with the responsibility for the management of the railway station and who may be the infrastructure manager;

71) service facility means a plant, including land, buildings and equipment, specially arranged, as a whole or in part, in order to enable the provision of one or several services referred to in Article 15, paras. 2, 4 and 5 of this Law, which includes tracks connecting the network with service facilities.

The performance of the activity of managing the public railway infrastructure and the activity of performing the transport of passengers and the transport of goods in railway traffic shall be regulated on the principles of separation of the tasks of managing the public railway infrastructure and the activities of performing transport in railway traffic.

In terms of management, administration and control over administrative, economic and accounting matters, railway undertakings directly or indirectly state-owned or controlled by the state shall have an independent status.

The infrastructure manager is responsible for its own management, administration and control, in accordance with this Law.

Income statements and balance sheets shall be kept and published separately, on the one hand, for the activity of railway undertakings and, on the other hand, for the activity of railway infrastructure management.

Separate income statements and balance sheets shall be kept and published, on the one hand, for activities related to the provision of rail freight services and, on the other hand, for activities related to the provision of passenger transport services.

Public funds paid for the area of ​​activity referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article may not be transferred from one activity to another.

Public funds paid for activities related to the obligation of public transport of passengers shall be stated separately on the relevant invoices and shall not be transferred to activities related to the provision of other transport services or any other activities

Accounts for various areas of activity listed in paras. 4 and 5 of this Article shall be conducted in such a way as to enable monitoring of the prohibition of transfer of public funds paid in the name of one activity to another and monitoring of the use of revenues from access prices and services, as well as revenues from other commercial activities.