Bulgaria’s long-term plan on rail infrastructure development includes the construction and modernization of the entire corridor on the east-west axis, as well as the rehabilitation of other railway lines that are important for domestic and international traffic.
According to estimates, by 2020, traffic on the railway network will focus on the routes Dragoman-Burgas, Karnobat-Sindel, Dragoman-Svilengrad, Ruse-Varna, Vidin-Kulata, Sofia-Varna and Ruse-Stara Zagora. “This transport mode continues to be preferred (particularly the destinations Sofia-Varna and Sofia-Burgas) because of the overload of the road infrastructure, high fuel costs, environmental protection policy and safety. The improvement of the railway infrastructure in the coming years will stimulate an increase in the volume of the rail freight traffic and passenger services on domestic and international routes. The underfunding and inefficiency of maintenance costs remain a challenge.”, states Bulgaria’s Partnership Agreement which highlights the support of Structural and Investment European Funds for 2014-2020.
It will be crucial to ensure the continuity of investments in the given timeframe to gua-rantee the finalization of the projects that are in development and which permit the construction of the core networks and of cross-border connections within TEN-T. Also, the ERTMS system will be implemented as part of the infrastructure construction and mo-dernisation and the measures necessary for the construction of the GSM-R network on all railway lines in Bulgaria will be adopted. Priority investments will focus on TEN-T corridors (in Bulgaria) to increase the quality of transport and interoperability. As part of the complementariness with other national financing instruments, EU and EIB, through the Connecting Europe Facility, Bulgaria plans to implement transport, energy and IT projects worth over EUR 2.3 Billion. For the transport infrastructure, the authorities have prepared projects worth EUR 750 Million, among which the modernisation of Vidin – Medkovets section, part of Vidin-Sofia line and the railway connection between the ports of Ruse and Varna.
The modernisation and development of the railway network in Bulgaria needs a new approach for the integration in the European transport system. “Railway transport in Bulgaria has to reorient its philosophy and to develop a new approach; if not, traffic will fall constantly. Currently, the market share of this transport mode in Bulgaria is of 10-15% and if projects are not implemented, and the political class doesn’t adopt measures to encourage and promote railway transport, it will fall. Railway transport has to be thought as part of the entire transport system, not separately; the integration of this transport mode into the transport system and the promotion of railway transport are the main growth and development factors of the sector”, declared Simeon Ananiev Chairman – Association of Bulgarian Railway Carriers and Intermodal Operators (ABZHP), during the Railway Days 2013 Summit, organised by Club Feroviar and AIF.
Also, he said that projects had to be developed through the implication of several countries, as the development of traffic also needs access to foreign markets. “A low rail transport share is not something specific to Bulgaria; Romania is facing the same problem as well. In our country, this segment has known a dramatic fall compared to the previous year and the market share has shrunk by 20%. Every country in Europe believes that the increase of the freight flow needs transport infrastructure, terminals etc., but we have these assets and the transport is falling nonetheless. It is obvious that we need another approach and we need to rethink our whole system”, explained Ananiev.
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