site.btaTraffic Is Normal at Danube Bridge

Traffic is normal through the Danube Bridge border crossing at Ruse. There were no queues of vehicles before noon on Saturday, a BTA reporter saw.

The authorities said that cars wait up to five minutes to cross the bridge and around 30-40 minutes at peak times. Lines of cars with Romanian tourists returning from holiday had formed in the late afternoon and evening on Friday. Traffic is also expected to be congested on Saturday and Sunday around these times.

On July 10 a major overhaul of the Bulgarian section of the 70-year-old facility was launched. 

The border crossing told BTA that a total of 1,970 trucks had passed through the facility in both directions over the past 24 hours. Of these, 870 entered Bulgaria and 1,100 left the country. On average, about 3,000 cars cross the bridge in the direction of Romania per day.

Georgi Tonev, who is a truck driver and often travels from Bulgaria to Germany, told BTA that the Bulgarian-Romanian border is one of the most difficult to cross. In his words, the repair of the Danube bridge at Ruse further slows down traffic, but if the two countries are admitted to Schengen by land, it will be much easier.  

"To get to Germany, I go through Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. I wait the longest at the Danube Bridge crossing at Ruse-Giurgiu. Once I pass Romania and enter Hungary, it is easy because there are no borders to Germany," said Tonev.