Railway Freights down by 40%

Bulgaria's railway freights have registered a 40% decrease in their volume in January 2009 compared to November 2008 - Novinite reports.

The news was announced on Saturday by Bulgaria's Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev in an interview for the Darik Radio. Mutafchiev attributed the freight decline to the effects of the global financial downturn.

In his words, the Bulgarian State Railways transported about 50 000 tons of goods per day in November 2008, whereas in January 2009, this figure fell down to 30 000, and even to 25 000 tons per day.

We are taking measures to save 3 000 jobs in the transport sector. We are going to create about 8 000 temporary jobs with the investment projects that we have prepared in the repair of railway cars and rehabilitation of the railroads and adjacent infrastructure, Minister Mutafchiev explained.

He emphasized that the most important transport projects for 2009 were the construction of the second bridge connecting Bulgaria and Romania over the Danube (Danube Bridge II), and the rehabilitation of the Plovdiv-Svilengrad Railway, which would allow the trains there to reach a speed of 160 km/h.

Source: Transportweekly