Railway Link Between Bulgaria and Turkey Closed for Renovation

04.04.2011

Logistika Magazine Issue 3 / April 2011

A 45-day shutdown of the rail way between Svilengrad (Bulgaria) and Kapikule (Turkey) came as an unpleasant surprise to the transportation and forwarding companies because of the problems with the alternative route through Greece. Two weeks after the rail way was shut down, we asked forwarding experts for their opinion.

“Forwarding companies with a focus on rail transportation were most affected. Their annual turnover, before the crisis, was between BGN 80 and 100 million”, says Mr. Georgi Minchev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Association for Freight Forwarding, Transport and Logistics.

“The transportation of grain from Bulgaria to Turkey will be most affected. We have a telegram from the Bulgarian State Railways saying that they will not accept any grain products from Bulgaria for shipping through Greece. Our deliveries to Turkey are dome entirely by trucks”, says Zheliazko Stamatov, Multimodal Transportation manager with Militzer & Münch.