The geographic location of Bulgaria on a cross-road is a natural relative advantage for the attraction of transit traffic of high potential. The relatively well-developed road and rail networks are an additional advantage but they need infrastructural and technological modernisation. The railways need to overcome their lagging behind other modes. Among the disadvantages are the insufficient spread of road networks to the West and North-West, the border status of the Danube and its rare usage as internal waterway, as well as the relative isolation of the Black Sea and its peripheral role in transcontinental transport from Europe. Among the system disadvantages are the lack of common infrastructure management, lack of logistical cooperation in the environment of intermodal competition and common management of the networks for urban, suburban and intercity passenger services. The national transport network as a whole is rather a sum of separate transport modes than a system of mutually complementing transport networks for services.

Priorities of the transport policy

These are as follows:

- Vidin-Sofia-Plovdiv-Svilengrad, with branch lines to Burgas and Kalotina;

- Kulata-Sofia-Ruse, with branch lines to Varna and Gueshevo.

Along the above routes, the priorities are as follows:

- the new bridge over the Danube at Vidin/Kalafat;

- construction of modern infrastructure along the route Vidin-Sofia-Plovdiv-Svilengrad/Burgas, including Sofia Airport;

- development of infrastructure along the Kulata/Gueshevo-Sofia-Ruse-Varna route;

- development and modernisation of infrastructure along the Ruse-Dimitrovgrad/Harmanli-Makaza route;

- expedient and precisely phased development of infrastructure for combined services in the ports of Burgas and Varna, Ruse and Lom, and in the region of Sofia, Dimitrovgrad/Harmanli, North-East Bulgaria and the new bridge at Vidin. The implementation of priority infrastructure objectives should be accompanied by political measures as well:

- implementation of the principle 'the consumer pays' in parallel with the step-by-step internalisation of external costs for all transport modes;

- introduction of infrastructure charges, which would allow for the accumulation of funds for its optimisation, modernisation or construction of its alternative;

- provision of funding by means of balanced mix between European funds, national budgets and public-private partnerships;

- development of secondary transport networks with a view to the improvement of access to the Pan-European network;

- balanced urban and territorial planning in order to avoid unnecessary growth of commuting;

- promotion of public transport and provision of maximum opportunities for combined journeys;

- modernisation of public transport and in the cities in order to reduce car traffic;

- planning of working hours and curriculums in such a way as to avoid peak traffic on the transport network;

- development of the satellite navigation system 'Galileo' by 2008 for global coverage and integrated transport management.

National railway network: challenges and priorities

The infrastructure analysis of the Bulgarian railway network shows that:

- its density is relatively low - 38.7 km/1 000 km2;

- its configuration is incomplete and the share of 'dead-end' lines is relatively large (40%);

- the network parameters in terms of speed are too low;

- the share of gradients is relatively large - over 12.5%;

- there is an excess of capacity but lack of quality, including the line sections along the international corridors;

- cheap construction generates large operational costs.

The conclusion is that competitive railway infrastructure should be offered to the railway operators not just because of competition among and along the corridors, but with a view to the necessity of modal re-distribution.

Intermodality and logistics

The national railway infrastructure will play a significant role in 'people's intermodality' due to its access to the centres of large cities and its location in the proximity of the other towns and smaller settlements. Some of the good examples for the implementation of this approach are the projects for modernisation of the railway line from Plovdiv to Svilengrad and the adjacent infrastructure to the Vidin/Kalafat bridge.

Technologies and interoperability

In this respect the national railway infrastructure is far behind and unfortunately the projects Plovdiv-Svilengrad and the Danube bridge 2 have missed the chance to improve this situation. A priority in the common European transport field is the implementation of transport-communication technologies with innovative solutions for information services and transport security, covering the Pan-European network and the cities, towns and villages.

Priorities and investments

Due to the relatively non-intensive traffic in our country, the major priorities for the development of railway transport and infrastructure are defined by the optimum mix between the concepts for higher speeds and intermodal services. The speed requirements are broader and more significant in terms of investment and, therefore, they will define the framework. The investment policy in the Bulgarian railway network should comply with the strategic market objectives of the EU enlargement, i.e. to keep the market share of railway companies in newly-acceded member countries at the level of 30% (target projection for 35%); their access via the Danube to the EU network of inland waterways and the implementation of the so-called 'sea high-ways'. Strategic studies and analyses point out to the following priority investments:

1. Construction of the missing railway links and reconstruction of certain lines with a view to the establishment of a European network for freight services in accordance with the AGTC and AGC Agreements and in implementation of Decision 884/2004 of the European Parliament and the Council as of 29.04.2004, concerning the amendments to Decision 1692/96 on the European Community directions for the development of the Trans-European transport network:

- new bridge over the Danube at Vidin/ Kalafat;

- railway link Gueshevo/Kriva palanka;

- Vidin-Sofia-Kulata/Svilengrad;

- Ruse-Varna and Sofia-Karlovo-Burgas;

- Ruse-Dimitrovgrad-Svilengrad/Makaza (Dedeagach);

2. Containerisation of freight traffic and construction/modernisation of intermodal terminals: Sofia, the ports of Burgas and Lom; Dimitrovgrad (Harmanli); the ports of Varna and Ruse; the region of Vidin;

3. Increasing the speed of passenger services along the routes:

- Plovdiv-Svilengrad (Istanbul);

- Sofia-Plovdiv-Burgas/Varna and Sofia-Vidin (Kalafat);

- (Thessalloniki) Kulata-Sofia-Ruse (Bucharest)/Varna;

- Sofia-Belgrade and Sofa-Skopje;

4. Railway integration of airports (Sofia, Burgas, Varna, Ruse)

5. Inclusion into the ERTMS/ETCS and GSM-R and the Galileo Project.

6. Implementation of integrated systems for public transport of the type 'one ticket, one stop, one journey'.