site.btaSofia City Hall Works to Restart Lifts and Make Mt Vitosha More Accessible by Public Transport

In addition to making Mt Vitosha more accessible via regular public transport from Sofia, the local government is working to restart the lifts going up its slopes. City Hall's action plan will be made public in the coming months, Mayor Vassil Terziev said in a Facebook post on Saturday.

The high accessibility and the full range of tourist and sport attractions of Mt Vitosha can only be restored with the participation of all institutions and interested parties, Terziev argued.

He hopes that this can be accomplished in 2025. "We owe it to our kids and future champions," he said. The Mayor commented that Bulgarian alpine skier Albert Popov's historic win in the World Cup slalom on January 8 is good reason for public institutions to get down to work.

"While I feel joy for Albert and his achievement, it pains me to think of all future champions we are losing because of the unsatisfactory conditions for our children to train in Mt Vitosha," Terziev said.

But even now, with the ski runs inaccessible by lift, over 2,000 kids practice skiing and snowboarding annually in the mountain just south of Sofia, he noted. "Kids deserve easy access to Mt Vitosha using up-to-date lift service, new and safe drag lifts, regulated ski trails and convenient infrastructure all over the mountain. To make that happen, we and all other responsible parties should roll up our sleeves and stop finding excuses," he said.

Terziev vowed that there will be at least one functioning lift by the end of the current municipal government term. "I hope for a much more comprehensive solution, not just one lift, to make the mountain accessible. We are working for it," he declared at a briefing.

In December, the Union of Architects in Bulgaria hosted a conference titled "Vitosha: Time for Decisions," at which representatives of government institutions and experts discussed ways to provide environmentally sparing tourist access to the mountain.