Most legal prerequisites for opening the market have been created in Bulgaria. Success can be noticed particularly in rail freight transport where numerous external railway undertakings have been established in recent years despite the shrinking rail share in the freight transport market. The situation is different with regard to passenger transport, where the incumbent BDZ still has monopoly. This is not likely to change in the medium term considering the recently concluded public service contract for rail passenger services.
Compared to the European average, only very little investment is made in the railway infrastructure, which is in urgent need of refurbishment. However, there are grounds to doubt whether the significance of the railway will increase in Bulgaria in the near future. The rail share of the modal split decreased drastically in recent years in both freight and passenger transport. In rail freight transport, the share declined from 36.7% to just 20.5% between 2001 and 2008.
However, Bulgaria has to focus on the railway infrastructure development in order to attract as many freight transport operators as possible, and Romania should also take advantage of the rail-naval (the Danube) and rail-maritime connections, due to the Black Sea ports.
Starting with 2005, private operators have also emerged in Bulgaria apart from BDZ, the first being BZK whose shareholders are the Bulgarian company Aropolychim and the Romanian operator GFR.
In 2009, BDZ carried 13% less freight than in 2008, 18 million tonnes, 4,031 tonne/km. BZK (BRC) carried 1.6 million tonnes, 20% more than in 2008, 640 tonne/km. Bulmarket, another private operator, reported in 2007 a volume of 0.4 million tonne/km. Two other freight operators received license in October 2008: Gastrade and Unitranscom, the last one owned by Bulgarian company TransWagon and the Romanian operator Unifertrans. Rail Cargo Austria had also received operation license in Bulgaria, as well as DB Schenker Rail Bulgaria.
The new Bulgarian Minister of Transport, Ivailo Moskovski, has promised there would be no amendments in the ministry’s strategy, but that he would speed up the the rhythm of launching reforms and absorbing EU funds. As for BDZ, the minister added, the already established reforms will be followed, but the implementation rhythm could be speed up. “We have to prove to the World Bank that investments made in the railway infrastructure will bring necessary indicators”.
Moreover, the Bulgarian Minister announced the stimulation of the RO-LA traffic by reducing transport charges by as much as 50%. Currently, Bulgaria charges BGN between 0.6331 and 0.6998 (EUR 0.3237 – 0.3578) per train/km for container and RO-LA transport. After the cuts, the charge per train/km for RO-LA transport will vary between BGN 0.3392 and 0.3749.
The measure will be valid for Corridor X and can be applied once the RO-LA terminal from Dragoman, near the Serbian border, will enter service.
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