site.bta Transport Minister Orders Railway Company to Draw Up Troubleshooting Plans

Transport Minister Orders Railway Company to Draw Up Troubleshooting Plans

Sofia, February 7 (BTA) - The caretaker Minister of Transport, Hristo Alexiev, has required Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) to draw up a long-term and a short-term plan to address its problems. Alexiev told a news conference on Tuesday that the short-term action plan should guarantee the fulfillment of the passenger train timetable in 2017.

He described the situation at BDZ as "highly critical" and said that the management of the national railway company has not taken any steps to overcome the problems. BDZ's passenger division is failing to provide the services which it is scheduled to provide because it does not have enough locomotives and motor carriages. "Nothing has been done to address the issue. Not a single procedure has been started to award contracts for the repair of motor carriages, or for renting locomotives and motor carriages," Alexiev said.

In 2016, BDZ spent one million leva on providing temporary bus services as a substitute for train services for which it had no locomotives. "This is shortsightedness, and it means that there is no clear concept about how to solve the problem," Alexiev said. There are now plans to examine all available locomotives and conduct procedures for renting more of them. Various options exist to refinance the BDZ loan, the minister said.

Discussing Operational Programme "Transport," Alexiev said the main task is to finish the old programme. All relevant reports are to be submitted by March in order to prevent possible losses of funding. In connection with the new programme, an integrated transport strategy should be devised by the end of March.

The main problem about the new Operational Programme "Transport" is the Strouma Motorway project, the minister noted. The project must be sped up because otherwise Bulgaria may lose an enormous amount of funding, he warned. It is also important to implement railway projects within the established deadlines. Three bidding procedures for large railway infrastructure projects are to begin by the end of March. The first one is for the railway between Elin Pelin and Kostenets (in Sofia Region), which consists of three lots; the second one is between Kostenets and Septemvri; and the third one is between Sofia and Volouyak, which is part of the railway linking the capital with the Serbian border. The three projects will cost 700 million euro in total.