It was built by the Yugoslav State Railways (JŽ) in 25 years of construction[1] and is now operated by its successor companies Železnice Srbije (ŽS), Željeznice Republike Srpske (ŽRS) and Željeznička Infrastruktura Crne Gore (ŽICG).

[2] The connection from the Serbian capital to the Adriatic coast was one of the major railway projects in Europe in the second half of the 20th century.

Today, the same trip takes around 11 hours due to speed restrictions necessitated by poor track conditions and border controls at Bijelo Polje.

[6] The decision to build the railway connection between Belgrade and Bar was made in 1952, as a national project of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

[citation needed] In 2016, Serbia started a thorough reconstruction of its portion of the line in order to restore its original maximum speed of 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph).

The same was true of Dragan Antić's record Pruga Beograd–Bar, on which, of the four songs, the number Jadran Ekspres began with the solo singing of a guslar.

These albums were financed by the Jugoslovenska Investiciona Banka and featured identical covers with the railway line, once in blue and once in red.

[9][10] The Serbian media spoke of the end of an era, and the locomotive driver of the last journey said goodbye to the station and the waiting passengers with a siren.