site.btaTransport Minister: Nearly All Repairs on Railway Tracks Will Be Finished by 2029

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadjov said here on Tuesday that train delays in the country are mainly due to repairs on railway tracks. The Minister reported that finishing the repairs within a year of two would be very difficult and specified that nearly all projects should be completed by 2029.

Karadjov said: "The only unclear part is the tunnel at Elin Pelin [Western Bulgaria]—actually, those are two tunnels where we lack complete clarity. This is mostly because the contractor has made some serious claims. Following my instructions, the head of the National Railway Infrastructure Company has set up a new committee made up of professors. They will be taking measurements and creating a comprehensive model of the tunnel to help us understand the situation better and decide how to move forward, including whether we can still finish on schedule."

The Minister took a train from Sofia to Burgas in order to test the railway infrastructure's readiness for the launch of additional trains on the Sofia-Burgas and Sofia-Varna routes that stop at a minimum number of stations. He reported that one additional train per route will be launched on June 15, and it will make two to three stops.

Karadjov was riding a 25-year-old carriage, part of the state railways' new fleet. The maximum speed it reached was 130 km/h. Travellers over the summer can pay BGN 63 for a train ticket from Sofia to Burgas. Provided the repairs are finished by then, as expected, travel time should be cut down to 5 hours and 10 to 15 minutes, which should compete with automotive transport, the Minister said.

Karadjov commented on the increased number of truck accidents in the past few days saying: "These were isolated incidents. We established speeding in every case. However, this speeding does not come per se, but from the one who drives the machine. Our roads are really bad. From this point of view, the state has been indebted to drivers and commuters for decades. Speeding, however, is a major factor."

The Minister reported that options are being discussed to link the information systems of all institutions involved in road traffic. He added: "At the moment, BGTOLL [the National Toll Administration] only checks vignettes, we [the Ministry of Transport] only check trucks tyres, the traffic police check with cameras. All this power of the state, through a unification, we should put it on the road and let it be known that in Bulgaria no violation goes unpunished."