About this journey

Veles station, which first opened in 1873 and was most recently rebuilt in 2016, sits where the Vardar valley begins to narrow southward into the heart of North Macedonia. From here the journey follows the Табановци–Гевгелија line, the country's only electrified main line, energised at 25 kV, 50 Hz AC and stretching 215 km from the Serbian border to the Greek frontier. That single corridor carries the great majority of rail traffic across a national network of 699 route-kilometres, and forms part of Pan-European Corridor X connecting Serbia in the north to the Aegean port of Thessaloniki in the south.

The railway beneath the wheels dates to 1873, when Ottoman engineers completed a standard-gauge line between Skopje and Thessaloniki spanning approximately 234 kilometres, with the inaugural train reaching Skopje on 9 August 1873. After the formation of Yugoslavia in 1918 these tracks were absorbed into the Jugoslovenske Železnice system, and following a 2007 reform the successor Makedonski Železnici was divided into a separate infrastructure manager and operator. The line's maximum gradient of 16 per mille reflects the topographic discipline required to thread a main line through the Vardar corridor and the ranges that close in around it south of Veles. Near Stobi station, roughly 31.9 km from Veles, the route passes close to a major ancient archaeological site of the same name.

As the journey progresses southward toward the Greek border, the line converges on Gevgelija station, which opened in 1874 and serves as a junction for both Corridor X and Corridor VIII. With 13 tracks — 10 currently in use — Gevgelija retains the scale of a historic cross-border interchange, a fitting contrast to the quieter, valley-bound character of the route's northern stages out of Veles.