The state of BDZ: There is an outflow of passengers from the railways

The state of BDZ is "extremely worrying" - this is what Deputy Transport Minister Krasimir Papukchiyski said. Since the beginning of the year, there have been 5,700 cancelled passenger trains, generating a daily delay of 1,800 minutes. Locomotives and wagons are not maintained, hygiene is poor.

According to Papukchiyski, immediate steps must be taken to repair the locomotives and cars to meet the schedule and make the service acceptable to the public. The offices are also in a deplorable state and are not maintained. The contract for the repair of the locomotives and wagons is not monitored and not being implemented. As an example, the deputy minister cited a locomotive that was cut up for scrap in January for unexplained reasons and had been in service for only 17 years, while the overall service life of locomotives is 30 years.

In his words, the situation in BDZ - Freight is also tragic. The wagons and locomotives are not repaired. Only the receivables that are overdue and uncollected currently amount to 23 million BGN. The only income was from a case won by BDZ against a private bank.

"We cannot talk about any profit in BDZ. On the contrary, we are talking about a deterioration in service, a reduction in customers and an exodus of passengers because a poor service is being offered. The main objective is to return the railways to the market situation we remember years ago. And not only this - to improve the service and really the passenger to find in the railway sector a partner for the transport service", said Krasimir Papukchiyski - Deputy Minister of Transport.

The deputy minister also said that there is already an order to merge the companies into the state railways, but no analysis has been done on what the effect of this merger will be. Such an analysis has already been commissioned.