Minister of Transport and Communications Georgi Gvozdeykov inaugurated the modernised Stara Zagora railway station. "One of the main railway junctions in Bulgaria is located here, where the North-South and East-West lines cross and last year alone more than 412 000 passengers passed through it," Minister Gvozdeykov said during the ceremony.
The Transport Minister pointed out that for more than 40 years no major renovation of the reception building in Stara Zagora has been done. "Today we can already say that the residents of the city will use one of the most modern stations in the country," Gvozdeykov said.
"This project shows that when there is a good dialogue between the institutions and the local communities, the results are good for all parties," explained Minister Gvozdeykov, recalling that the originally set yellow colour was changed, thus the Ministry of Transport and communications and the National Railway Infrastructure Company complied with the public's wishes.
The Transport Minister and Agnes Monfre, representative of the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy at the European Commission, laid a testament to future generations in a time capsule on one of the walls of the station's waiting room. It contains a message from the students of the 6th grade of Kiril Hristov Primary School and the flag of the European Union. The new capsule was bricked up together with the first one, which has been there since the station was built.
"Thanks to the good cooperation with our European partners, railway transport in Bulgaria continues to modernise and move in the right direction," Gvozdeykov said. In his words, after the completion of the railway highway from Sofia to Burgas and the delivery of the new trains under the Recovery and Resiliance Plan, the railway transport in this direction will reach the European level. "We should also make efforts in upgrading the railway infrastructure to achieve high speed and quality service," the minister added.
The event was attended by the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Biser Minchev, representatives of the European Commission, the management of NRIC, the head of the OPTTI MA Martin Georgiev, representatives of the local and central authorities, etc.
