site.btaRomanian Government Greenlights Restart of Ferry Service Complementing Danube Bridge

A ferry service will be launched across the Danube River between Giurgiu in Romania and Ruse in Bulgaria, perhaps as early as this summer, to complement the bridge connecting the two towns along the main transport route between the two Balkan neighbours.

On Friday, the Romanian government approved a decision to restore the Giurgiu-Ruse ferry service. This will involve the reopening of a border checkpoint which was operational until 2005. It will reopen after the building of necessary infrastructure and the setting up of communications. A written copy of the decision was sent by a Romanian government source to the BTA correspondent's office in Bucharest.

The ferry will transport at least 200 long-haul trucks per day in one direction. It will take between 12% and 15% of the Danube Bridge traffic. This will greatly relieve the flow of vehicles along the bridge, which is particularly intense at present as many people are having their summer holidays and emergency repairs have been going on at the site for two weeks.

On April 29, the governments of Bulgaria and Romania signed in Bucharest an agreement on setting up a border checkpoint for the purposes of a soon-to-be-restored ferry service between Ruse and Giurgiu.