The Bulgarian Railways – status and expectations
10.03.2011
The Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Aleksandar Tsvetkov declared in September 2009 that the Bulgarian State Railways were in a state of failure. In less than two years the new team of the ministry succeeded to regulate the receiving of the salaries without delay by all employees of the Bulgarian State Railways and the National Railway Infrastructure Company.
The restructuring of both companies is in progress. The main aim is the Bulgarian Railway to be modern, safe, competitive and the level of the services to be increased to the level in the EU in the period to 2020.
The situation for the Bulgarian Railways at the moment is as follows: the volumes of the railway traffic and their market quotas are decreasing; the traffic in 2010 is 40% lower than in those in 2007; the quality of the passenger and cargo services is lower than that which the Bulgarian citizens and the business expect; the productivity of the railway sector in Bulgaria is the lowest in the whole European Union; the infrastructure and the mobile composition are in bad and worsening condition; the subsidies for the railway sector are increasing, but less and less are the resources for investments: the financial support for the sector has increased double since 2005 up to now, and reached 400 millions levs in 2010, and only small amount of these resources is directed for capital investments; the state carrier is not in condition to serve its duties.
The program for reforms in the railways is developed, because there is a clear realization and reporting of the necessities not only of the Bulgarian but also of the world economy of the existence of strong railway transport. In the reform main position have the realization and development of: conceding high-quality and ecologically suitable service for passengers and cargo; saving thousands work places in the associations - Bulgarian State Railways and National Railway Infrastructure Company – two of the biggest employers in Bulgaria; forming logistics and business for cargo transportation via railway transport; opportunity for using all European funds for modernizing the railway infrastructure; improvement of the financial statement of the two associations and a change in the use of the resources from the tax payers – from subsidizing of operational loss of investments in the railway transport.
In the framework of the program is planned the accomplishing of strategic reforms that aim efficient structural changes in the processes in the two railway associations.
It is developed a plan for social support and help for passing over another work in addition to the paid compensations from the railways for support to the employees that are affected of the reform program, the government proposed a program
It was looked for the help of the European Commission and international financial institutions (EIB, EBRD, IBRD) in order to have railway transport in Bulgaria. It was required the confirmation of the European Commission for granting of state aid for saving Bulgarian State Railways.
The Bulgarian state has addressed to the World Bank with the request for technical support for the realization of institutional measures and for financing of the investments for mechanization of the maintenance in the National Railway Infrastructure Company that will supplement the financing under the European Funds.
|