Railway transport in Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Macedonia to terminals, ports and ferryboats in Bulgaria are very important for Europe. The forecast growth of the modal share of the railway transport from and to the ports of Varna and Burgas will rely on the optimisation of conventional and container services.
For Bulgaria, the most important goods transport flows depend on the development of transport in Russia, the Baltic Countries, especially Poland, which are carried to Central and Western Europe. Consequently, rail and maritime transport grant maximum importance to the takeover of freight volume against roads by providing optimized services and track access. “Developing cooperation with operators, implementing new products on new markets, such as the ferryboat transport on the Caucasus-Varna or Thessaloniki -Moscow, Thessaloniki- Sofia routes, are absolutely necessary to increasing traffic. Currently, Rail Cargo Austria assured that they would participate in the Bulgarian railway sector and we are hoping to secure partnerships”, said Pencho Popov, CEO of BDZ.
However, for the efficiency and growth of traffic, the international transport depends on the agreements signed between the states and the companies. “We are about to sign an agreement with TCDD (Turkish Railways) for the goods traffic to Turkey. As regards industrial terminals and parks, we have projects, some underway, others already developed, and we are hoping to attract a high flow of freight”, declared Simeon Ananiev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Railway Carriers.
The transit to Turkey to Bulgarian terminals and ports focuses on combined services, goods being shipped to Europe. Since the railway traffic is growing in China, Russia and the CIS, container traffic is also intensified, developing mostly in Varna. Varna hub is the direct solution of the freight coming from the European Union to Russia.
Another potential corridor is through Serbia, “and Russia expects open access from the Greek Government. It has been proposed that from Thessaloniki the goods will be shipped through Varna. To that end, I believe it is desirable to develop a collaboration on the Serbia-Greece-Turkey axis, as this is a viable alternative to transport services and the capacity and potential of freight for the traffic on this route, and implicitly to the CIS, is increased”, added Ananiev.
Efforts are made to prioritize the transport of freight to Western Europe, as gate to Asia. “With Vidin, we can say that we are a gate to Kazakhstan, Russia and China and we can give the example of the ferryboat service from Varna to Russia. With Vidin Bridge, Europe will have a green transport corridor to Russia, via Bulgaria. We have other services to Ukraine, Georgia and we compete with other companies. Also, we have different access routes to former soviet countries and we have to develop services through Turkey, Varna-Constanţa”, Ananiev concluded.
Share on:
