The State Railways has difficulty finding 10 million leva needed to buy new diesel-powered train units from Siemens. In 2006 the company is meant to start using the engines on several lines. Of the 25 units purchased, 12 are currently in operation in Bulgaria. Eleven are still in Germany and two units are at the border.
After the election of the new Cabinet this summer, Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev tried to cancel the deal with Siemens that had been signed by his predecessor, Nikolai Vassilev. Siemens representatives said the company would have accepted, if the 25 units had not been already described in the production plans, Sega newspaper reported.
With the a new railway timetable having come into effect on Sunday, 16 new trains will start functioning, railway officials said. They will operate on the lines where the new diesel units will be used. This means that the number of Bulgarian trains is expected to increase to 589. Of these, 24 are international, 135 are long-distance passenger trains, and the remaining serve short-distance lines.