site.btaMay 21, 1864: Bulgaria's First Railway Goes under Construction between Ruse and Varna

A hundred and sixty-one years ago on Wednesday, the first railway in what is today Bulgaria went under construction between the cities of Ruse (then Ruschuk), on the Danube, and Varna, on the Black Sea.

It was the second railway in the Balkan lands of the Ottoman Empire. The earliest one, built between Cerna Voda and Constanta (then Kostence) in the southeast of present-day Romania, went into operation on October 4, 1860.

On September 1, 1861, the Ottoman authorities issued a decree for the construction of the Ruse-Varna railway. Due to a shortage of own resources, the Sublime Porte decided to award a concession contract for the project, says the history section of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) fan page. Those who showed interest in the undertaking included some wealthy Bulgarians, among them Stefan Bogoridi and Dimitar Geshov, who were supported by Grand Vizier Rashid Pasha. Affluent Bulgarians in Shumen, backed by friends in Constantinople and personally by the famous polymath Ivan Bogorov, also eyed the concession.

Eventually, the project was assigned to the company of the English brothers Trevor and Henry Berkley. The contract was concluded in October 1863. The Ottoman government was represented in the project by Musurus Pasha, and the British company, by William Gladstone, the future prime minister, who provided a guarantee of one million francs and undertook to build the railway in three years.

Construction started on May 21, 1864, when the first sod was turned during a festive ceremony on the bank of the Danube at Ruse (Ruschuk). The construction process started simultaneously from both ends, Ruse and Varna.

Henry Berkley, who was an engineer, designed the project. He changed the initially planned route via Shumen by introducing a deviation of 25 km in the direction of Kaspichan.

By the end of August 1865, the contractor had built 22 km of track from Ruse and 32 km from Varna, and by December of that year, the track built from both ends had an aggregate length of 92 km. Trains, mainly service ones, were launched along the completed sections, but regular operation of the railway was yet to start. The inauguration of the railway was postponed several times.

On November 7, 1866, the Ottoman governor of Ruse, Midhat Pasha, travelled the whole distance between Ruse and Varna without switching from train to horse, and declared the 224 km railway open. The date marks the beginning of rail communications in the land of today’s Bulgaria.

In 1869, the Ottoman government awarded a concession contract to Baron Moritz von Hirsch, an Austrian entrepreneur, to build more railways in the Bulgarian land. The baron built the railways Constantinople-Edirne-Belovo, inaugurated on July 18, 1873, and Zlati Dol-Nova Zagora-Yambol, inaugurated on January 22, 1875. These, together with Ruse-Varna, were collectively known as the Eastern Railways and were managed by Hirsch.

The railway between Ruse and Varna remains in operation to this day.

Curiously, King Boris III (reigned 1918-1943) was a certified train driver. He sometimes practiced the occupation, and is known for never causing an accident.