A serious restructuring of BDZ-Freight Transport begins, which includes reducing costs and analyzing all tariffs for freight transport.
This was said by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadjov during a meeting with the President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria Plamen Dimitrov, representatives of the trade union organization and the managements of Bulgarian State Railways and the National Company “Railway Infrastructure“.
“Nearly half of the cargo transported by rail in Bulgaria is served by BDZ-TP, and the rest by private carriers on the market. However, last year's data shows that the company's turnover is 140 million leva, and overdue debts are 33 million leva," said Karadjov. According to him, any private entity would declare a company with such financial results insolvent.
“At the moment, we have limited any external costs in order to avoid accumulating more debts“, commented the Deputy Prime Minister and added that ways are being sought to sell the company's non-operating assets, which generate huge costs. He pointed out that BDZ-TP pays up to 250 thousand leva per month just for parking the rolling stock on tracks owned by NRIC. “I have instructed the company to urgently prepare a list of non-operational assets and to proceed with their sale“, Karadjov said.
The management of BDZ announced that BDZ-Freight Transport has about 4,500 wagons, and 2,000 are needed for the company's activities. In addition to rolling stock, the assets that are no longer needed are buildings, premises and terrain that are not used for their intended purpose, but generate financial losses, the national carrier indicated and gave as an example 230 apartments of BDZ-TP throughout the country.
The President of the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions Plamen Dimitrov said that one of the important topics in the railway sector is the conduct of a fair procedure for selecting a passenger railway operator. Petar Bunev, Chairman of the Union of Railway Workers in Bulgaria, pointed out that it is extremely important to prepare a recovery program for BDZ-Passenger Transport and BDZ-Freight Transport, including to ensure the repair of rolling stock.
Deputy Prime Minister Grozdan Karadjov emphasized that the Ministry has sent the European Commission a concept and a set of questions regarding the award of passenger rail transport in the country. “After clearing up all the details and before announcing the tender, we will hold a broad discussion, in which I hope the trade union organizations will also be included“, Karadjov also stated.