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5th Intermodal Road Map completed for Bulgaria

2014/06/06

The Round Table convened high-level representatives of the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport, the inter-modal industry and international stakeholders who discussed recent achievements and future prospects of intermodal transport in Bulgaria. They achieved a consent about the challenges that need to be faced for further growth and relevant measures that will be necessary to foster the increase of intermodal rail services.
The meeting was jointly prepared by consultancy companies HaCon and KombiConsult and moderated by COSMOS project manager Uwe Sondermann (KombiConsult, Frankfurt am Main) who concluded the following results which were agreed upon with invited participants:

  • Bulgaria is strategically located on the cross roads of European/Asian trade lanes with direct access to the black sea by own ports, Aegean sea via Thessaloniki;
  • Potential cargo flows which could be modally shifted from road to intermodal rail / road services are operated by a variety of small road hauliers which show only little attempts to share their revenues with intermodal/rail operators;
  • The “chicken-and-egg” situation between appropriate infrastructure and intermodal services is still existing although intermodal terminals Stara Zagora is operational, Sofia “Yana” was built and in Plovdiv building is said to start soon;
  • Rail infrastructure along the Rail Freight Corridor (RFC) 7 needs to be completed at highest priority to supply harmonised operation conditions across border.
  • European funds supporting these “multimodal” corridors are generally available and need to be requested in the framework of the Operational Programmes” (OP) Transport at national level;
  • The concertation with stakeholders, such as ports, rail-road terminals, railway undertakings, and other users of the infrastructure are carried out in the framework of the “Trans-European Core Network Corridors”;
  • Already at national level the transport sector stakeholders should join their forces to provide a coherent set of projects which will deliver an added value for the shippers and transport operators with respect to efficient, fast and reliable transport by intermodal rail road services;

The Road Map on Intermodal Transport in Bulgaria can be downloaded here:

The Sofia event was the 5th in a series of in total six Round Table meetings which have been organised within the COSMOS project for Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia since April 2013.
Responsible:
Klaus-Uwe Sondermann, KombiConsult GmbH
Phone +49.69.244 32 93 – 172, Fax +49.69.244 32 93 - 179
E-Mail usondermann@kombiconsult.com, Web www.kombiconsult.com