Bulgaria demands €300 mln from Brussels for new trains

The Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) have started preparing an application form for the purchase of new trains worth nearly €300 mln, said Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski. The document is expected to be ready in early 2014. The funding will be allocated under OP Transport in the programming period 2014-2020.

Tenders should be launched as early as next year if there are unabsorbed funds allocated in the current programming period. For the first time, there will be an option for new trains to be purchased with EU funds. The Siemens Desiro motor carriages, delivered in 2005-2006, are the last new trains in the country.

“Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov will negotiate with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble the postponement of the payment of the loan for the carriages in order to prevent the return of 50 cars,” said Moskovski. The problem arose after it became clear that the State Railways are unable to regularly repay the loan. It was borrowed in 2005 from the German KfW Bank and is worth €190 mln.

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