About this journey

Veles station, the oldest railway station in present-day North Macedonia, sits at the heart of the country's rail network. Its current building was erected by Yugoslav Railways in the 1950s on a site first opened on 9 April 1873, when Chemins de fer Orientaux inaugurated the line from Skopje to Thessaloniki. With ten tracks, some electrified following the electrification of 1978, the station remains a central junction from which Line 5 — the Железничката линија Велес – Кременица — departs southward toward Bitola.

That connection was not easily won. Construction of the Veles–Bitola route through Bogomila began on 19 September 1932 and the line was only completed on 20 January 1936. Bitola station itself has deeper roots: it opened in 1891 under Ottoman rule as part of the Société du Chemin de Fer ottoman Salonique-Monastir, and the Yugoslav government formally absorbed the line on 17 October 1925. In 2017, stations along the route — including Bogomila and Bitola — were renovated, Bitola receiving a new roof, thermal insulation, and a refurbished booking hall, though the works remained entangled in a dispute over technical acceptance. The line south of Bitola toward Thessaloniki has been closed since 1984, making the station the southern terminus of active rail in North Macedonia, a grand endpoint to a route whose international ambitions were once far broader.