Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Kamen Kichev attended today the official welcoming to the first container block-train at the intermodal terminal at Jana railway station in Sofia.

This types of transport are the future and they receive our support, because the fewer goods are transported by road the less will be the damages to the ecology of the country, said Deputy Minister Kamen Kichev. Railway transport should be used more efficiently, because it is cheap and ecological, the minister added.

The pilot train has 24 wagons and it is carrying 24 containers from Ljubljana. Until now, container block trains have passed through Bulgaria only transit due to the lack of intermodal terminals, operating with sufficient capacity. With the arrival and processing of the first block train, Sofia became part of the European terminal network connecting Lyon to Istanbul.

The arrival of the first container block-train at Jana station is a result of a joint project developed between the "Railways - Freight Transport" Ltd. and Company "Ekolodzhistiks" Ltd. By the end of the year at Jana station will be processed about 400 containers, arriving from Koper port. The full capacity of the terminal will be achieved in stages, after negotiations with 6 more intermodal operators processing regular container trains.

Terminal operator is "Ekolodzhistiks" Ltd. and its main partner in Bulgaria is a subsidiary of "Holding Railways" EAD and "Railways - Freight Services" LTD.

The event was attended by the Executive Director of "Holding Railways" EAD, Jordan Nedev, managers of 'Railways - Freight Services' Ltd., Plamen Djurov and Ivaylo Ivanov, the manager of "Ekolodzhistiks" Ltd., Lubomir Syarov, the director of "Ecometal Engineering "Ltd., Vladimir Nikolov and others.