The Bulgarian State Railways company BDZ has made a BGN 64.5 M deal for the purchase of 30 new sleeping cars from Turkish company Tuvasas.
The deal is funded from the Bulgarian state budget; the first 20 cars are to be delivered within 1.5 years, and the remaining 10 cars – in 2 years.
Tuvasas first won the tender for the delivery of sleeping cars for the Bulgarian state railways back in 2008; however, BDZ renounced the contract of the same amount – BGN 64.5 M – because of issues with the legal status of the state subsidy for the purchase. This led BDZ to announce a brand-new tender.
The CEO of BDZ Tencho Popov has admitted that the Bulgarian state railway company is awfully short of sleeping car spots, and cannot meet the demand for such tickets.
BDZ ran out of sleeping car seats for the Christmas holidays in early December.
"The condition of the sleeping cars that we have at present is terrible, and we cannot meet the demand. We will need more sleeping cars in the future since at the present speed of our trains it takes 6-8 hours to reach further destinations, and people prefer to sleep during such a lengthy travel," Popov explained as cited by the Dnevnik daily.
He also said the deal with the Turkish company Tuvasas is going to solve the problem with the shortage of sleeping cars.
In February 2008, 9 people perished in a train fire in Northern Bulgaria after they could not get out of a sleeping car caught fire. Even though railway workers and officials were found responsible, many blamed the tragedy on the outdated sleeping cars.
In 2011, BDZ will analyze its passenger traffic in order to update the company's investment program, which is fully funded by the state budget. According to the Chair of the BDZ Board of Directors, Vladimir Vladimirov, the sums that BDZ is supposed to receive from the state in the future years are too high, and will be reduced.
BDZ has a contract for railway passenger services with the state for 15 years; in that period it is supposed to receive a total of BGN 1.2 B, but the subsidy will probably be decreased.
The Bulgarian government recently signed a framework memorandum with the World Bank for loans for BDZ and the National Railway Infrastructure Company expected to total BGN 600 M for urgent reforms in the sector; the restructuring, however, will probably produce much social tension as several thousand workers might be laid off.