A HIGH-SPEED train service is to be set up next year to take passengers from one end of the country to the other within four hours.

The planned service, involving two trains, is expected to start after the completion of the public procurement procedure, scheduled for February 2004.

The new engines will run at 200 km an hour. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Nikolai Vassilev in Rousse on December 1, during a visit to the city's central railway station in connection with its upcoming reconstruction. There are eight producers of such trains in the world, operating in tight competition. Because of this, the Bulgarian Government expects favourable offers, Vassilev said.

The railway infrastructure and the train fleet needs urgent modernisation, Vassilev has said on several occasions.

Bulgaria's state railway company BDZ has not purchased new engines since 1986, and most of its engines and rolling stock were manufactured in the 1960s. Three thousand six hundred and twenty carriages will be repaired next year. This will ensure work for Bulgarian companies because the Ministry of Transport has imposed a ban on awarding repair contracts to foreign firms.

The reconstruction of Rousse railway station is to cost nine million leva. The repairs will be financed by the Government and are expected to be completed by 2005. The modernisation is part of the railway reform concept developed by the Transport Ministry under the supervision of Vassilev. The whole railway infrastructure has to be modernised to ensure safe functioning of the new express trains. The line between Plovdiv and Bourgas is to be repaired. A third of the railway network in Bulgaria needs urgent renovation, Vassilev said in Rousse.

The railway stations in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas and Rousse will have to be reconstructed to meet European standards. Second-class railway stations will be closed down next year. They are causing BDZ severe losses, according to the ministry's document outlining its plans.

Meanwhile, Pari daily reported that opposition MPs said that BDZ used the state budget subsidy for anything but its intended purpose. The subsidy for next year amounts to 70 million leva. According to Ivan Ivanov, deputy chairperson of Parliament's committee on transport and an MP for the opposition Union of Democratic Forces, the sum is in danger of disappearing instead of being invested in technological modernisation.

Ivanov said that BDZ should be split into two entities, for cargo and passenger transport. Only the passenger enterprise should be subsidised, he said. Ivanov said he supported the stance of the International Monetary Fund, that subsidy to BDZ should be reduced, because it was prolonging the life of the monopoly.

Responding to the criticism, Vassilev said that cases of lost revenue had been detected. The ministry ordered BDZ to improve the collection of liabilities in 2004. Vassilev suggested that a special account be opened to collect resources for purchasing new trains and to cut costs.

Pari said that the powers of BDZ director Georgi Neshev had been reduced by Vassilev to signing invoices not exceeding 20 000 leva.

Yordan Mirchev, chairperson of Parliament's transport committee, suggested recently that past liabilities of BDZ, amounting to 130 million, should be remitted or rescheduled.