Major Bulgarian businesses said that Bulgarian State Railways affected negatively commercial activities because of the small number of railroad cars, Agence France-Presse reported.

Shortly before Bulgaria's EU entry the state railways hindered economic growth and needed immediate modernisation measures, head of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Bozhidar Danev said.

Bulgarian companies could not export their production because of the lack of railroad cars, Danev said. The limited capacity of Bulgarian ports also affected the work of major industrial producers, said he.

Old railroad infrastructure furthered the problem, said Danev as quoted by BGNES news agency. It limited train speed and at the same time nearly 95 per cent of all industrial production was going to be carried by train in 2007, said Danev.

State railways representatives said that the company had only 7083 railroad cars. According to statistics at least 8550 cars will be required to meet the needs of businesses in 2007.