We will seek partnership with the best experts in Europe who have experience in rail safety procedures. All procedures and rules must be reviewed in the short term and, where there are shortcomings, these must be rectified. This was underlined by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadzhov at a meeting with Andreas von Busch, Head of Unit for Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovenia at the European Commission's Regional and Urban Policy General Directorate, which monitors the implementation of EU programmes in the three countries.
The Deputy Prime Minister raised the issue of funding these technical assistance measures through the Transport Connectivity Programme 2021-2027. ‘Our aim is to set up a serious team of international experts to thoroughly analyse all procedures and come up with specific proposals for railway companies and operators. This must be done in the short term because we cannot allow any more lives to be lost on the rails,’ Karadzhov was adamant.
Regarding the implementation of the Transport Connectivity Programme 2021-2027, Deputy Prime Minister Karadzhov said that talks with all the institutions involved are to be held in order to speed up the implementation of rail and road projects. ‘We need to quickly find a solution to all the open issues that are holding up the implementation of the Struma Motorway, the Shipka tunnel and the key railway routes between Sofia and Plovdiv,’ Grozdan Karadzhov said.
The financing of the multimodal station Obelya was also discussed during the meeting. "This project should be seen as an excellent example of a multimodal link between metro, rail and bus transport. Our goal is that all people who come to the capital to work will be able to leave their cars at the entrance of the city and use public transport," Karadzhov explained, adding that the project is fully ready and if the programme provides funding, it can be launched immediately. It was stressed by the European Commission that the requirement of equal investment between Southern and Northern Bulgaria should be strictly respected, and the possibility of including this additional project will be determined in relation to the overall investment map of the Transport Connectivity Programme 2021-2027 by region.