site.btaGround Is Broken for Voluyak Intermodal Terminal

Volyak is becoming a centre of the cargo industry, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Grozdan Karadjov during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Multimodal Logistics Platform Sofia-West (Rail=Road Terminal Volyak).

The beneficiary of the project is Transexpress Ltd.

Volyak is the hub of cargo transport to Sofia. All cargo coming from the south to the north will be loaded and unloaded here, and this will increase. With the development of Corridor VIII, more and more cargo from east to west will pass through Volyak again, the Deputy Prime Minister said.

We will have a private intermodal terminal, which will contribute to less and less cargo moving on Bulgarian roads, which will help reduce air pollution and road safety. In terms of air cleanliness, we are at the tail end, and in terms of road safety, we are at the tail end. The sooner this terminal is built and launched into operation, the better it will be for Sofia, because we have no other place like this where a 740-metre train can enter and start its processing and transhipment from one mode of transport to another. This is a huge necessity and a huge benefit for Bulgaria, said Karadjov.

The construction of the railway terminal will lead to economic growth in the Volyak region and to increased employment of people in the region, said Ivan Petrov, CEO of Transexpress Ltd.

The construction of the terminal will stimulate an increase in the volume of freight transported by rail, solving an important infrastructure bottleneck that currently limits the shift of freight from road to rail within the Sofia railway junction and in the region. The capacity of the terminal will provide for the handling of 300,000 tonnes of conventional cargo and 70,000 intermodal units on an annual basis. The efficiency of rail transport will be improved thanks to the possibility of handling longer train sets, which will contribute to a more sustainable transport system in line with the EU's goals of achieving climate neutrality and zero pollution by 2050, Ivan Petrov said.

Indre Venckunaite from the European Commission and the Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) noted that the project had come a long way and wished it will be brought to completion.

BTA recalls that the financing of the project was approved at the end of June 2022. The implementation of the project will result in the modernization and improvement of the terminal's capacity, the development of the regional industry's access to intermodal rail freight transport and a significant improvement in transport flows between EU member states. The duration of the project is 29 months. EUR 8, 590, 759 will be allocated under the mechanism.