Škoda to deliver EMUs to Bulgaria

Bulgaria's Ministry of Transport and Communications has concluded another (actually, at the moment, the first) of the complicated state-organised tenders for new electric units. On 4 September 2024, the Škoda Group concluded a contract with this ministry for the supply of 20 four-car EMUs with an option for five more, including their full service for 15 years. The value of the contract, including the option, amounts to almost half a billion euros.

The units are intended for services on the Sofia - Burgas (418 km), Sofia - Varna (514/543 km, depending on the direction) and Sofia - Ruse (411 km) routes. This is actually the project for which 200 km/h non-traction push-pull trainsets were originally planned. However, following the failure of the tender in question, this was cancelled and the plan changed to EMUs, for which the European Commission's approval had to be given with regard to financial support from European funds via the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan, when the original project did not envisage this.

According to the tender documents, the units were required to have a minimum seating capacity of 300 seats and a top speed of only 160 km/h (which, however, is sufficient in Bulgaria). The trains are to be based on the RegioPanter type, so it can be assumed that they will be similar to the ČD's InterPanter EMUs with regard to their intended use.

As can be seen from the data on the procurement portal, the joint offer of the consortium of Škoda Transportation and Škoda Vagonka was 511.4 million BGN (approx. 260 million EUR), but this included only the delivery of 20 trains and planned maintenance. The only other bid was submitted by the BUL20EMU consortium (Alstom Transport, Alstom Ferroviaria and RVP Invest), worth 659 million BGN (around 337 million EUR).

Bulgaria's tenders for new trains are complicated. The previous state tender for the supply of 35 regional single-deck EMUs is still pending. After Stadler Polska (initially selected as the winner) withdrew from the tender, PESA's bid was selected, but subsequently Alstom still appealed against the tender. Stadler also cancelled the already concluded contract for seven double-deck KISSes - this tender is now completely cancelled with no result and the contract for the long-distance units, which was the last tendered, is currently the only one that has been (validly) concluded.