By February 2015, the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) company is to decide how many diesel rail buses it needs to replace old railcars which are to be taken out of service, according to Anton Ginev, Deputy Transport Minister.

In an interview for the 24 Hours daily, Ginev noted that a public procurement procedure for the supply of rail buses would be launched once the number was specified.

He pointed out that the average efficiency of the 38 trains which had been dropped from the schedule as of Monday had been 23%.

Ginev explained that the management of BDZ would welcome any ideas for reorganizing train traffic by trade unions, NGOs and citizens.

He emphasized that there was no way to avoid staff cuts and the suspension of “inefficient” trains due to the downsized subsidy of the state-owned railway company.

Ginev underscored that the alternative to cost-cutting measures was bankruptcy.

He made clear that BDZ would start buying new trains and repairing train cars if a new debt rescheduling agreement with the company’s creditors.

Ginev informed, however, that the creditors of BDZ insisted to be paid at once BGN 219 M out of a total debt of BGN 371 M, while the company was unable to pay more than BGN 70 M, including BGN 40 M from the state subsidy and BGN 30 M which would otherwise have been used for capital expenditure.