Interview with Deputy Prime Minister Grozdan Karadzhov for "24 Chasa," conducted by Mariana Boykova.
Mr. Karadzhov, you will not be welcoming the first of the 25 new Skoda trains in January. Someone else will also welcome the 35 Alstom trains. But at least it is clear that the railway renovation has begun. What could go wrong?
The most important thing is not who cuts the ribbon or who welcomes the first train. The most important thing is that after decades of delays, hesitation, endless postponements, compromises, and unfulfilled promises, the Bulgarian railway is finally entering a period of real, irreversible renewal. When I visited the Škoda factory in November and tested the first completed Bulgarian train, I experienced a specific feeling—that finally something new, something created specifically for Bulgaria, was ready, putting an end to the long and arduous wait for us to have comfortable and modern trains like the rest of Europe.
Of course, there is room for things to go wrong—delays in the supply chain, unforeseen technical problems, our own bureaucratic challenges... But this time, the difference is immense: we have contracts, fixed schedules, stable European funding, and serious penalties reaching up to 40% of the value. There is no longer any room for the traditional "lack of political will" in our country to stop the process. These trains will be delivered between April and August next year, followed by another 23 railcars by the summer of 2027. That makes for a total of 60 modern electric railcars for short and medium distances.
The big challenge is not whether the trains will arrive, but how we will use them to provide people with a better service. I wish my successor to continue the reform of BDZ for a new standard of passenger service – cleanliness, comfort, reduction of delays, information boards... Unfortunately, the transitional budget adopted by the National Assembly does not include funds for this change. I hope that the next budget will include funding for this.
But isn't there a risk that if the order for public rail transport is stopped, as insisted upon in a statement by PP-DB, €600 million from the restoration plan, which is earmarked for these new trains, will be lost?
Yes! If the public passenger service contracts are not signed and the Public Transport Act is not adopted, the entire amount of over half a billion euros could be lost.
The procedure for selecting rail carriers is one of the most transparent in recent decades! It is also among the most closely monitored—by three EC directorates. We coordinated everything with the EC at every stage and held numerous public discussions with trade unions, carriers, experts, academia, NGOs, and the transport committee in parliament. We expected to receive more than three bids, but unfortunately, we only received one from a private company.
This procedure will end, naturally, with the signing of contracts. If there are no appeals, this will happen very soon, in January.
You do not intend to halt the procedure, as requested in a statement by PP-DB?
These ridiculous statements are of little value, given that at the very moment when the transport ministers were appointed by PP-DB – both in Kiril Petkov's cabinet and in the coalition government – this reform was included in the restoration plan. To quote the exact text: "A fair, non-discriminatory, and competitive procedure should be conducted in Bulgaria, with measures taken to ensure the removal of all potential barriers to market access and, most importantly, including the division of the contract into several separate positions with limited scope."
As minister, I did exactly that, no more, no less. Again, I regret to say that only one candidate outside BDZ showed interest. I would have been happy to see more, so that there could have been greater competition.
It should be noted that the maximum profit margin for subsidised rail services is 2.9%. This is not a market where millions can be made, as laymen might suggest. This is a very demanding, responsible, and complex service with high safety requirements. This is not a market for adventurers or profiteers, but for serious companies that want to develop a railway.
You initiated a major reform in public transport with your draft bill for a new act—a national transport scheme, a unified electronic ticket, and a national access point. Something that no one else in 20 years has dared to start. Will the ministers succeeding you carry it forward?
The Public Transport Act is at the centre of everything I have accomplished with my team over the past year. The reason was not administrative or political, but deeply human. I travel a lot around the country and I am ashamed that in 2025 there are villages where people literally have no way of getting to the city, walking kilometres to the nearest bus stop. Elderly people who need to go to the market rely on hitchhiking. A sick person has to ask a neighbour with a car to take them to the doctor. Young people are fleeing to the city, where transportation is organised. This is not just an inconvenience, it is social isolation. 738 settlements have no public transportation at all, and another 601 have a schedule only on paper. It is not normal for entire regions to be excluded from the state transport map. This is an injustice that has been accumulating for decades.
That is why the Public Transport Act is much more than just another piece of legislation. Its aim is to provide everyone, in every town and village, with predictable, convenient, accessible, and modern transport—as is the case in developed European countries. The act puts the traveller at the centre. It is not the companies, not the administration, not the institutions, but the person who needs to get there on time, comfortably, safely and without unnecessary expenses.
There are three major changes at the heart of this act:
A unified national transport scheme,
which transforms the fragmented and chaotic transport network into a common, logical system. It establishes railways as the backbone and logically organises bus transport and all other types of domestic transport around it;
A unified electronic ticket and mobile wallet, which provides ease, convenience, and freedom of movement;
New standards for quality, safety, accessibility, and environmental friendliness, which guarantee the level of service.
The act has been prepared carefully, publicly, in dialogue with carriers, municipalities, experts, users, non-governmental organisations, etc. And we are leaving it in its final form after two months of discussion, ready to be submitted to the Council of Ministers and Parliament. The next minister will not be starting from scratch—they will inherit a solid framework, clear logic, and broad public support. And there will be no reason to stop the reform.
Your proactive policy of opening up to neighbours and building corridors is impressive. You signed an agreement with North Macedonia for the joint tunnel, and they are already boasting that they will be building the railway line to the border. Where will the €1.2 billion investment in Corridor 8 come from?
Corridor 8 is one of those projects that Bulgaria has been talking about for more than a century. Generations have heard promises about the Sofia-Skopje line, but something has always stopped it from happening. Politics, lack of funding, lack of coordination... The tunnel started near Gyueshevo station had not moved since 1942. In 2026, 84 years later, that will change.
When we entered into negotiations with North Macedonia, I knew that if we managed to sign a binding agreement on the tunnel, it would change the logic of the entire project. Because when the two countries make symmetrical commitments, the project ceases to be a "desire" and becomes an international commitment. And we succeeded. Just weeks later, the European Commission included the Sofia-Skopje railway line for funding under the Connecting Europe Facility for the period 2028-2034, and Bulgaria will not have to bear this burden alone. The EIB and the EBRD are also ready to co-finance.
We have selected contractors for two key sections of Corridor 8 on Bulgarian territory: Pernik – Radomir and the last 2.4 km from Gyueshevo station to the border with the Republic of Macedonia. This shows that Bulgaria is not just talking, but building. This makes the project irreversible.
And Corridor 8 is not just a railway line, it is geopolitics. It creates an axis from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea and connects the Balkans in an infrastructure network that Europe fully supports.
Three bridges over the Danube – how far along are the negotiations with the Romanians about them? They are not particularly open to the idea of connectivity, are they?
The bridges over the Danube are not just infrastructure, but a measure of whether Bulgaria and Romania are ready to think of themselves as part of a united Europe, rather than isolated territories. The Danube is a natural border, but if we allow it to remain a dividing line, it will be a loss for both nations. Upstream, there is a bridge every 17.6 kilometres, while between Bulgaria and Romania there is only one bridge every 275 kilometres...
Within the framework of the memorandum between Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, we have reached one of the most significant agreements in recent years—to begin work on three new bridges—at Ruse-Giurgiu, Silistra-Calarasi, and Nikopol-Turnu Magurele. These bridges will completely unblock traffic in the north and give the entire Central Danube region a chance.
At the beginning of the month, you signed a memorandum with Greece and Romania regarding connectivity. Can you provide a projection as to whether the three axes from Athens to Bucharest will be transformed into concrete projects?
I can not only predict, but confidently say that these axes are already becoming a reality. Because the memorandum is a political commitment—with specific deadlines, specific funding, and political will at the highest level. The three axes—western, central, and eastern—have enormous potential. The western axis connects Athens and Thessaloniki, Sofia and Vidin with Craiova and Western Europe. The central axis runs from Thessaloniki and Alexandroupolis to Svilengrad and Ruse, and from there to Bucharest, Chisinau, and Kiev.
The eastern axis—perhaps the most interesting one—creates a new connection between the Aegean and Black Seas via Alexandroupolis, Burgas, Varna, and Constanta. This is the economic map of Southeast Europe for the next 30 years. These corridors will determine investments, trade flows, logistics, and the role of ports. Neither Bulgaria, nor Romania, nor Greece can achieve this alone. But together, we can.
The European Commission fully supports this effort. And that is key.
I consider this to be perhaps the biggest international breakthrough that Bulgaria has made in terms of transport over the past year.
All these efforts—the purchase of new trains, modernisation, public transport reform, liberalisation, corridors, bridges, international agreements—lead to one single goal: to make the lives of Bulgarians more comfortable. I want Bulgaria to be a bridge, not a periphery. That is the purpose of the transformation we have begun.