Bulgarian State Railways Announces 20% Increase in Train Ticket Prices Due to Rising Costs
Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) has declared a significant adjustment in train ticket prices, citing a sharp surge in the company's expenses over recent years
Recent news of the dire condition of the Bulgarian State Railways company bring to mind a well-known model of state neglect and tolls yet another chime for the very possibility of Bulgaria's development as an integral country.
The first part of this model is years-long neglect, which also includes years-long overlooking by the state of chronic sapping of assets from its own companies.
The logical result is a condition similar to the one that the State Railways have now been revealed to be in - debts tens of millions of euro, dilapidated infrastructure, rotting cars, outflow of clients.
Then - the next step is liquidation, not straight out, but perhaps by means of reduction or privatization. It is only logical since the state has already for years lost interest in providing even the basic amount of care about something that is supposed to be of service for all citizens.
And this is the most tragic of all. Cases such as the Bulgarian State Railways, or the Bulgarian Posts, which are by the way now rumored to be up for privatization in the near future, must be regarded not just as business actors offering services to consumers - they are in essence means actively developed by the state to offer connection amongst all of its citizens.
That is, in cases such as railways, roads, the mail - or the school system for that matter - you have the essential role of the state to bring people together into a nation. This is a function that the Bulgarian state has chronically been giving up in the last 20 years or so, no matter the particular cabinet in office.
With talk about some 200 train lines waiting to be closed down across the country, one is left with little to wonder about the fate of remote, already depopulated regions.
This is yet another step in the consistent strategy of multiple governments to turn Bulgaria into a collection of 2-3 major cities inhabited by thoroughly desocialized individuals - and surrounded by a desert shrubland.
We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!
If we look at history, there are not many cases in which relations between Bulgaria and Russia at the state level were as bad as they are at the moment.
The term “Iron Curtain” was not coined by Winston Churchill, but it was he who turned it into one of the symbols of the latter part of the twentieth century by using it in his famous Fulton speech of 1946.
Hardly anything could be said in defense of the new government's ideological profile, which is quite blurry; at the same time much can be disputed about its future "pro-European" stance.
Look who is lurking again behind the corner – the tandem of Advent International and Deutsche Bank, respectively the buyer of the Bulgarian Telecom Company in 2004 and the advisor of the Bulgarian government in the sweetest deal of the past decade, seem t
We have seen many times this circus which is being played out during the entire week and it only shows one thing - there is no need of a caretaker government in Bulgaria.
You have certainly noticed how many times President Rosen Plevneliev used the phrase “a broad-minded person” referring to almost every member of his caretaker government.
UN Happiness Report: Bulgaria's Astonishing Leap in Rankings
Bulgaria: 3 Regions With Lowest Life Expectancy - EU Report 2022