There are far too many accidents involving the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ as abbreviated in Bulgarian) according to Transport, IT and Communications Minister Alexander Tsvetkov, and "this is no  coincidence", he was quoted as saying by Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on December 9 2009.

According to the Minister, both railways and equipment are obsolete and in dire need of a major overhaul. Trains that are more than 40 years old are still widely operational across the country.

"I summoned a task force entrusted with investigating the technical situation of all locomotives in BDZ, currently amounting to more than 600. We are planning to have more than 200 of them retired from service, but for the moment, the remaining number of locomotives can function normally," Tsvetkov was quoted as saying by the BNT.

The Minister also stressed that BDZ is also equipped with brand new locomotives. Therefore, the problem should not be generalised or exaggerated. He insisted that railways in Bulgaria remain one of the safest means of transport, and the reason for that safety record is existing infrastructure which, with European funding, will be "rehabilitated, developed, modernised and improved".

About one billion euro is expected to be poured into the programme entrusted with rehabilitating the Sofia-Plovdiv-Bourgas section, as well as the segment spanning from Svilengrad to the Turkish border and Sofia-Dragoman.

Moreover, signalling and auxiliary infrastructure will also be replaced in order to comply with European standards and reduce the risk of accidents, the Minister said.

Finally, Tsvetkov said that the difficulties pertaining to the two structures of the BDZ and the National Railroad Infrastructure Company (NRIC) were serious but that a resolution has been reached and that the problems would be resolved gradually.

"There is a clear schedule indicating when staff will receive their salaries, and when they will receive their advance payments," he said.

This pertains to a measure implemented in September 3 2009 when the NRIC announced it would withhold 30 per cent  of its employees' monthly wages until the end of 2009 in another drastic measure to keep itself afloat.

According to reports from various Bulgarian media, a total of 1300 employees are poised to be made redundant by BDZ and its three subsidiary branches: freight, passenger transport and locomotives. This trimming began on October 1.

A further 670 will be released by mid-December 2009. The company has already offloaded more than 1100 workers since the turn of 2009, most of those nearing retirement age.

In October 13, 2009, BDZ revealed that it was 150 million leva in debt, with 20 million leva accumulated in the nine months since the turn of 2009 alone. By the end of the year this is speculated to reach about 40 million, the CEO of BDZ, Pencho Popov, was quoted as saying by Dnevnik at the time.

Regardless of the difficult times, BDZ vowed that it would not increase ticket prices, instead "it was contemplating alternative ways to become more attractive to customers," Popov told the media.

His assessment of the problems surrounding BDZ accounted to a number of interrelated factors, notably a seven to eight per cent decrease in passenger traffic and a more than 45 per cent slump in freight, which have contributed to a decrease in revenue of more than 20 per cent. This is a consequence of the global economic downturn and the closure of the Kremikovtzi steel plant. 

The accumulated debt of both state-run companies, BDZ and NRIC, amounts to nearly 500 million leva, according to Transport Minister Tsvetkov. Earlier on September 1, NRIC announced that as part of its money-saving and restructuring programmes, it would temporarily withhold 30 per cent  of its employees' monthly wages until the end of 2009 in another drastic measure to keep afloat.

The entire management board BDZ was replaced by Tsvetkov on October 7 when Popov was appointed the new CEO.