Bombardier Establishes New Bulgarian Legal Entity

On 25 September 2020 Bombardier Transportation announced that it has established a new legal entity in Bulgaria as well as a project management office in Sofia. Bombardier Transportation Bulgaria LLC is a 100 % Bombardier Transportation legal entity and will enable the company to strengthen its support for existing and future rail projects in the country and continue to work closely with Bulgarian railways as well as local partners and suppliers.

Richard Hunter, President, Rail Control Solutions, Bombardier Transportation, said: „With substantial rail modernisation underway in Bulgaria, this new office marks a significant milestone in Bombardier’s commitment to this growing market. We already have a strong working relationship with Bulgarian Railways (National Railway Infrastructure Company, NRIC, or Natsionalna kompania Zhelezopytna infrastruktura, NKZhI - editorial note) through our ongoing signalling projects and, with our wide portfolio of products and services, we look forward to further contributing to the development of rail transportation and supporting capabilities in Bulgaria.“

Bombardier entered the Bulgarian market in 2017 to install its INTERFLO 200 mainline signalling solution on the Skutare - Orizovo and Sofia - Elin Pelin lines. In 2019, Bombardier won another major contract to design and install an INTERFLO 250 ERTMS Level 1 signalling and telecommunication system along 300 km of the Plovdiv - Burgas line.

The latter is a priority line for the Bulgarian network and its modernising will contribute to improve the quality of services offered and to reduce transport costs. Increased speed and better quality of services will help to increase the competitiveness of rail transport compared to other types of transport. The work includes several essential activities:

- Design and construction of signalling and telecommunications systems including ETCS Level 1, GSM-R train communication system and fibre optic cabling.

- Construction of the railway overpasses or undepasses instead of existing level crossings.

- Construction of a protected forest belt at the Chernograd - Aytos section for the protection of the track from adverse weather.

- Modernising of the Skutare - Orizovo and Orizovo - Mihaylovo sections.

- Modernising of the Yambol - Zimnitsa section including the Zimnitsa and Zavoy stations.

- Modernising of the Straldzha - Tserkovski section.

The modernised line will enable a speed increase of up to 130 km/h and on some stretches of line up to 160 km/h, and will result in reduction of travel times of up to 70 minutes between Plovdiv and Burgas. The project is budgeted with 810,018,562 BGN, with an EU Contribution of 85 %. The start date was on 1 February 2016 and the project is scheduled to finish by 31 December 2022.