Bulgarian Govt Grants 5 Railway Lines 'National Significance' Status

Five railway lines, all of them going through Sofia, have been declared to be of "national significance" by the Bulgarian government.

Three of the five railway lines in question are part of the so called Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 4 (from Central Europe to Greece and Turkey via Vidin and Sofia); namely, Sofia-Vidin (the port on the Danube in Northwestern Bulgaria), Sofia-Pernik-Radomir in Western Bulgaria and Radomir-Kulata (on the border with Greece).

The other two priority railways are Sofia-Plovdiv and Sofia-Dragoman (on the Serbian border); both of these are part of the Pan European Transport Corridor No. 10 (from Central Europe to Turkey via Sofia and Plovdiv).

The inter-modal transport terminal in Plovdiv has also been added to the list of objects with national significance.

According to the Cabinet, the decision to declare these five railway lines part of the priority infrastructure creates opportunities for easing the procedures for the realization of investments in the modernization of Bulgaria's infrastructure and inter-modal transport.

This is also supposed to help with the absorption of EU funds for these railway routes.