From 1 September there will again be a rail link between Zelenikovo and Skopje. The commuter train will run eight times a day in each direction, and the journey will take between 24 and 28 minutes - which, set against Skopje's morning traffic, sounds close to impossible.

The train from Zelenikovo will stop at Zelenikovo Novo, Oreshani, Jane Sandanski, Drachevo and Lisiche, terminating at Skopje Railway Station. The first departure is at 6:20, followed by 8:30, 12:26, 14:00, 16:25, 18:30, 20:12 and the last at 21:55.

In the other direction, from Skopje Railway Station, the first train leaves at 5:32, then at 7:30, 11:40, 13:20, 15:42, 17:45, 19:12 and the last at 20:56. The timetable runs from 1 September to 31 December 2026.

Whether it gets used will be decided by something else

The line matters to residents of Zelenikovo, Oreshani, Drachevo, Lisiche and the surrounding places who travel to Skopje every day. But whether it is practical does not depend on the train. It depends on whether the timetable lines up with working hours, with schools and with the rest of the city's public transport.

Look at the schedule: the first train reaches Skopje around 6:45, the second around 9. For a shift starting at 8, one arrives too early and the other arrives late. That gap is what decides whether a train becomes daily transport or just a line on paper. How well the railway station connects to city transport is the second question - if it takes another half hour from the station to work, those 24 minutes stop meaning anything.

While Skopje gains, others lose

This news looks different placed in the wider picture. Ten pairs of passenger trains run on Macedonian tracks today - three each from Skopje to Bitola and Veles, and two each to Kumanovo and Gevgelija. Two trains from Skopje toward Veles and one toward Bitola have been scrapped. There are no international trains to Greece, Serbia or Kosovo.

So while the area around Skopje gains eight pairs a day on a short route, citizens of larger towns lose a service they used for decades. That is not an accident of scheduling. It is the consequence of how the railway companies have been run over the past two or three decades.

Eight trains a day to Zelenikovo is good news and deserves to be said as such. The question that remains is why bringing one line back requires scrapping three others first.