From today, January 1, 2025, the use of all public transport in Belgrade is free, a measure announced by the mayor of the Serbian capital, Aleksandar Sapic, while the country continues to live in the shadow of the deadly tragedy in Novi Sad, where on November 1, 15 people died in a railway station roof collapse.

With the introduction of the pioneering measure in the Serbian capital, Belgrade becomes the only European city with a population of over one million inhabitants where public transport will be free.

Various European cities such as Tallinn, Montpellier or even Luxembourg have adopted similar measures, but none of them concern a population of more than one million inhabitants. Belgrade has a population of almost 1.7 million inhabitants and the frequent use of the car results in huge traffic jams every day.

The entire fleet of buses, trams and trolleys will be renewed by 2027, the mayor announced earlier this month, promising that “by the end of 2025 no bus in Belgrade will be more than two years old.”

The measure could help reduce pollution in Belgrade, which is often ranked among the world’s 10 most polluted cities, according to data from Swiss company IQ Air, which measures air pollution worldwide.

Amid New Year celebrations, thousands of students took to the streets to demonstrate overnight in several cities in Serbia, demanding accountability for the accident in Novi Sad, which occurred after renovation work on the railway station. Almost daily protest rallies have followed one another on a national scale since then, as many in Serbia attribute the disaster to corruption and inadequate control of construction projects.

Serbian former transport minister Goran Vesic and 12 other people heard yesterday Monday that they were charged in the case.