The first 19 will arrive in mid-April, and by the beginning of the summer all the wagons will be included in the BDZ fleet
BDZ-Passenger Carriages Ltd. and Deutsche Bahn today signed a contract for the delivery of 76 modernized passenger cars. The first 19 of these will arrive in Bulgaria in April, and the remaining 57 will be delivered on schedule by early June. With these funds BDZ will modernize over 20% of its rolling stock and will serve the busiest routes from Sofia to Varna, Burgas and Ruse.
The contract includes the supply of 60 saloon-type passenger coaches for second-class travel, 6 specialised passenger coaches for the carriage of persons with reduced mobility and bicycles, and 10 bistro coaches. The total value of the contract is BGN 30.5 million, which includes all costs of delivery to Bulgaria. The unit price for 1 wagon amounts to BGN 391 166.
We remind you that at the end of January the Minister of Transport and Communications Georgi Gvozdeykov announced that the Ministry and BDZ are in the final phase of negotiations for the purchase of modernized rolling stock from Deutsche Bahn. A week later, representatives of the MTC and BWA went to the town of Leipzig and visited the DB base to inspect the rolling stock and clear up all the details of the deal. In the words of the transport minister, this is the first visible step in the reform of the Bulgarian railways, which for 30 years has been carried out only on paper.
The rolling stock meets all modern standards of comfort, is equipped with an air conditioning system, as well as with an information system to notify passengers of the stations and stops along the train route. The last scheduled overhaul of the wagons was carried out between 2018—2022, and they were in service on the German rail network until December 2023.
