Macedonia Businessmen Want Railway to Bulgaria Completed
Business | May 26, 2008, Monday
Macedonian businessmen want the completion of the planned railway line to Bulgaria as part of the European Transport Corridor 8. Map by unece.org
Macedonian businessmen want the completion of the railway, which is to connect their country to Bulgaria and will give it access to the Black Sea port of Burgas, the Macedonian daily Vecer reported.
The statements of leading representatives of the Macedonian business were made in the context of the recent strikes in Greece, which blocked Macedonia's access to the Thessaloniki port, and exposed its dependence on its north-south directed railway system.
According to Aleksandar Panov, the Director of the Skopje company Makstil, the north-south line does not have the capacity to serve the increasing volume of freight.
"The completion of the Pan-European Transport Corridor 8 must become the vision for future development because Macedonia is turning into a crossroads and a strategic transportation hub in the Balkans", Panov is quoted as saying adding that as a state without access to sea, Macedonia must be using the advantages of railway transport.
That is why in his words it must be linked by rail to Bulgaria and Albania in the east and the west, where it could use the ports of Burgas and Durrus.
The railway line connecting Bulgaria and Macedonia has been under construction for years but the work is currently abandoned. The Macedonian side needs to construct 23 km worth about USD 240 M, whereas Bulgaria has only 2 km of rail tracks to construct.
The railway line would make the trip between Sofia and Skopje only three hours.
A potential railway line to Albania would require a more massive investment because of the forbidding terrain.
The statements of leading representatives of the Macedonian business were made in the context of the recent strikes in Greece, which blocked Macedonia's access to the Thessaloniki port, and exposed its dependence on its north-south directed railway system.
According to Aleksandar Panov, the Director of the Skopje company Makstil, the north-south line does not have the capacity to serve the increasing volume of freight.
"The completion of the Pan-European Transport Corridor 8 must become the vision for future development because Macedonia is turning into a crossroads and a strategic transportation hub in the Balkans", Panov is quoted as saying adding that as a state without access to sea, Macedonia must be using the advantages of railway transport.
That is why in his words it must be linked by rail to Bulgaria and Albania in the east and the west, where it could use the ports of Burgas and Durrus.
The railway line connecting Bulgaria and Macedonia has been under construction for years but the work is currently abandoned. The Macedonian side needs to construct 23 km worth about USD 240 M, whereas Bulgaria has only 2 km of rail tracks to construct.
The railway line would make the trip between Sofia and Skopje only three hours.
A potential railway line to Albania would require a more massive investment because of the forbidding terrain.
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