Thu, Feb 09 2012
The European Commission has adopted a regulation on standardisation of rail passenger data on fares and timetables, with the aim of making key reservation and ticketing information 'inter-operable' throughout the EU.
A project involving five Balkan countries brings Asia closer to Europe
As the Sofia Echo reported last week, the document between the Bulgarian and Greek ministries of transport has been finally signed, giving the green light for the construction of two common train stations on the frontier which will ease passenger and freight traffic across the border.
Major reconstruction work to begin near southern Black Sea coast as part of plan to improve infrastructure and ease traffic flow
Bulgaria's Cabinet approved a new strategy for the development of the country's railways, meant to improve the quality and safety of the service to European Union standards, but at the same time made a big cut in the funding allocated to reach those goals. The draft strategy was submitted by Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev for Cabinet approval in October 2008 and envisioned 6.5 billion leva being spent by 2013.
Another chilling breeze from the global crunch has reached Bulgaria, with the Minister of Transport Petar Moutafchiev announcing on November 20 that the Bulgarian state railways BDZ will make 1250 redundancies in order to unload some of the burden from the company and "optimise its expenses". As a paramount reason for thinning the ranks of BDZ's employees, Moutafchiev pointed out the recent predicament of Kremikovtzi steel plant, which has been declared bankrupt.
How many people are needed to change a 300kg railway track? The answer is six. This takes several hours and involves pickaxes and a great deal of physical exertion from the workers. In effect, this has always been the modus operandi within the Bulgarian railways sector - using working methods dating back to the beginning of the 20th century - as well as a highly inefficient allocation of resources.
Bulgaria would inject 6.5 billion leva in upgrading the country's railways by 2013 if the plan put forth by Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev and the chairperson of Parliament's transport committee Yordan Mirchev is adopted by the Cabinet, Dnevnik daily reported. Moutafchiev presented the plan on October 17 and said that the figure was based on "detailed calculations" of how many new train engines, coaches and wagons needed to be bought, as well as the exact cost of repairing or replacing existing railway infrastructure.
On August 12, Bulgarian state railways BDZ started the gradual retirement of electrical carriages from series 32 and 33, which are more than 35 years old, the company said in a statement on August 11. Currently 140 economy class trains providing various itineraries in Bulgaria are subject to retirement. "In connection to the improvement of transport service safety, BDZ performed an additional check of the technical and fire alarm installations of all electrical carriages from series 32 and 33, as they have been in use for more than 35 years," BDZ said.
The payroll of Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) would be cut down by 1500 to 1600 people, the head of the railwaymen's labour union, Petar Bounev, told a news conference on July 23 2008. The staff redundancies come at a time when BDZ is already understaffed and, as a result, offering services of sub-par quality, Bounev said as quoted by Focus news agency.
Opposition parties and environmental protection NGOs argued that this and other provisions were the result of lobbyist pressure from ski resort operators.
Ferry-boat service between the Bulgarian and Romanian banks of the river may continue if the ferry captains decide that the weather conditions allow the safe passage of the boats.
Bulgaria shut down two 440MW units at its Kozloduy nuclear power plant in 2004 and two more units with the same installed power in 2006.
We hope this donation can assist those communities which are suffering, and especially those who have lost their homes, James Warlick says.
February 8 EC report notes a number of developments in Bulgaria’s progress in judicial reform, the fight against corruption and organised crime, but points to need for stronger action in a number of areas.
Plovdiv-Svilengrad route is not a high speed line.High speed line will be Constanta-Bucharest North 225km in 1h30' and nobody talk about this line despite of the fact that will be ready in december 2010, and now is under construction.The average speed for the fastest trains will be 160km/h not maximum speed as will be on Plovdiv-Svilengrad line.
160km/hour
How fast is fast? 130 KPH?