Railways in the focus of the
transport and logistics forum
The first international “Transport and logistics”
exhibition was organised by the Bulgarreklama
Agency and Bulgarian Transport Press Ltd. under the aegis of the Ministry of
Transport. The exhibition took place on 13th-17th February 2007 in Sofia’s
Inter Expo and Congress Centre.
In an area of 3 000 sq.m. over 120 direct participants and representatives of
well-known Bulgarian and foreign companies came together from 18 countries,
such as France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, the USA, Italy, the
Netherlands, Japan, Spain, Great Britain, Greece, Finland, Turkey, Russia,
Poland, etc. They presented the latest developments in forwarding and logistic
services, international and domestic transport, warehouse equipment, specialised transport means and transport informatics.
In parallel to the exhibition a scientific conference on
“Transport infrastructure and transport-logistic systems” was held. The
Minister of Transport, Petar Mutafchiev,
who was the patron of the conference, delivered a report on the priorities of
transport infrastructure and transport-logistic systems in Bulgaria. According
to him, the future development of the intermodal
transport system and the quality enhancement of freight transport-logistic
services call for improvements in the technical, technological and operational
parameters of terminal facilities, construction of new and reconstruction of
existing infrastructure for intermodal terminals, as
well as the modernisation and electrification of
railway links to sea and inland port terminals. Minister Mutafchiev
paid special attention to the prospects for the future intermodal
terminal in Sofia and the construction of such facilities in Plovdiv, Dimitrovgrad and Rousse, as well as to the railway link between Rousse and Varna.
In his turn, the President of the Bulgarian Industrial
Association, Bozhidar Danev,
pointed out that if no radical measures for the improvement of transport
infrastructure condition are taken, national economy development will be
hindered. Among the major problems in the sectors he highlighted the poor
condition of the railway network, as well as the desperate need for rolling
stock with a view to the implementation of already-signed contracts for freight
transport.
Even stronger in his criticism of the current condition of
the railways was the Chairman of the National Association of Bulgarian
Forwarders, Georgi Minchev,
according to whom the transport system in our country as a whole is outdated by
dozens of years, while the railway sector itself is “utterly degraded”. He
considers the literal translation of regulatory documents of EU member
countries and their automatic implementation in our country as a serious
problem for Bulgaria.
Maria Chakarova,
who is a Director in NRIC and responsible for the company’s strategy, addressed
the two topmost priorities of the company. One of these is the development of
the railway infrastructure as a modal part of the European infrastructure and
the rendering of rail highways in our country in compliance with EU technical
requirements. The sector development programme
envisages the implementation of a project for the construction and upgrading of
the railway infrastructure in the period 2007-2013. The project costs EUR988 million
and covers six main lines. The funding will come from EU Cohesion funds. The
second main priority of NRIC is the construction of intermodal
terminals. The key locations for such facilities were defined in January, and
priority will be given to those in Sofia, Varna, Bourgas, Rousse and Plovdiv.
Particularly interesting was the report, delivered by Pencho Popov, Director of the
Central Freight Service Division in BDZ EAD. He pointed out that the
development of combined services is a priority task of the national railway
carrier. According to him, the high volume of road services via Bulgaria
implies a significant potential for the development of combined road-rail
services. In order to promote the latter, a special infrastructure charge is
applied as of 1st January and block-trains with container wagons are charged at
preferential rates. Popov emphasised
the fact that BDZ can actually utilise only half of
the containers it owns. He stated that BDZ cannot offer to its customers
door-to-door services because of problems with the terminal facilities.
Currently, the company performs domestic combined transport of limestone from Asparuhovo to Radnevo. BDZ
expects much from the transport flows between the ports and the inland
destinations in the country (e.g. Bourgas-Philipovo,
where an intermodal facility is located). Number one
priority for the company is transit traffics, although due to current problems
some customers prefer routes via Serbia to routes via Bulgaria.