On March 5, 2026, at 4 p.m. in the BIAD hall of the Federation of Scientific and Technical Unions in Bulgaria, 108 Georgi S. Rakovski Street, Sofia, Large Infrastructure Projects Ltd. (LIP) will show “How high-speed trains (over 250 km/h) will turn railways into the preferred means of transport in Bulgaria in the coming years.”
The basis for the development of railway transport in our country is, above all, the construction of new high-speed lines. As such are considered tracks for speeds over 250 km/h. The European Commission’s plan of November 2025, “Connecting Europe by High-Speed Rail,” is an accelerator of the implementation of high-speed rail transport. An important part of the plan is the grant funding from the European Union for selected projects. Priority will be given to co-financing projects connecting capitals and large cities across more than one EU country, and which are ready for implementation within 6 to 8 years. For such projects, co-financing from the European Union may exceed 50%.
The two LIP projects for the high-speed lines Sofia-Varna (with branches to Vidin and Ruse/Bucharest) and Sofia-Thessaloniki, together with the modernized railway line Athens-Thessaloniki, form the high-speed railway artery Athens-Sofia-Bucharest. Moreover, the projects are at an advanced stage of readiness. The event will present the routes of the new high-speed railway lines in Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania; the new stations; connections with existing railway lines; the main facilities, including the new combined railway and road bridge over the Danube River at Ruse–Giurgiu; and travel times and timetables.
From Sofia Central Station to Varna the journey will take 2 hours, to Vidin about 1 hour and 45 minutes; to the new Ruse South Station – 1 hour and 25 minutes. The expected time to Progresul Station in Bucharest – 2 hours and 20 minutes, to Blagoevgrad – 33 minutes; to Thessaloniki – 1 hour and 28 minutes and to Athens – 4 hours and 40 minutes. In addition, we will discuss the traveling times for most settlements in Northern and Southwestern Bulgaria. Every day, eight trains in each direction will run between Sofia and Athens and eight trains between Sofia and Bucharest. Meanwhile, eighteen regional trains will run per day between Sofia and Thessaloniki, in each direction. These trains will serve more stations. In the summer tourist season, the final and starting station in Greece will be Katerini, and the travel time from Sofia will be 2 h. and 30 min.
The Sofia – Pernik – Radomir railway line is intended solely for suburban trains, known in the West as S-bahn, which will run every 10 minutes during peak hours. In addition to passenger transport, Large Infrastructure Projects has considered freight transport in the main directions, South-North and East-West. Freight trains with a length of up to 1050 m and a capacity of up to 152 TEU (equivalent to 20-foot containers) will run between Thessaloniki – Sofia- Mezdra – Ruse/Bucharest and to Vidin/Craiova.
We have used the combination of several modes of transport widely in the projects. The most significant multimodal center will be at Sofia Airport. There air, rail, bus, and metro transport will be combined, and a “warm” connection between them will be ensured.
Based on the high-speed and conventional railways LIP, we have developed a “Plan – Program for the Development of Railway Infrastructure and Railway Transport for the Period 2027 – 2040.” It covers the entire railway network of the country and connections with neighboring countries. It is in accordance with Art. 27 of the Railway Transport Act. The objectives of the Plan – Program are:
- Increasing the share of railways in passenger transport from 1.7% to over 18% and in freight transport from 9.4% to over 30%, reaching these indicators in a number of European countries.
- Reducing the negative impact of transport on climate change.
- Sustainable economic and social development for a long period of time in entire regions, not just the large cities.
- Stopping the decline in the country’s population and starting a sustainable trend for its increase from 2035. The “Plan -Program” lists the projects, their timeframes, resources, and financing, implementation, and operational methods, including through public-private partnerships.
Moreover, we will present the next steps for adopting the “Plan – Program” . To achieve the goals and fulfill the tasks, structural changes are envisaged in the Transport sector, such as:
- Division into two separate units of the railway infrastructure operator – one for maintaining and managing traffic, and the other for investment activities.
- Increasing and optimizing the activities of the Ministry of Transport by building a center near the new multimodal composition of Sofia Airport and relocating the Ministry’s administrations, its divisions, agencies, and enterprises there.
- To implement a unified transport policy, the road infrastructure (API) is to be transferred back from the Ministry of Regional Development to the Ministry of Transport and divided into a road maintenance unit and an investment program implementation unit.
In conclusion, the last part of the event will be a discussion. We invite all those interested in the development of railway transport and connections with neighboring countries, as well as the sustainable development of the country, to participate in the event.
Admission is free.
Link to the Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/4jviw5vT9
For contacts
Eng. Roumen Markov,
office@largeinfraprojects.eu tel. +359888513606