Minister Peev: Less than half of all passenger carriages are air-conditioned

The Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) has 266 passenger carriages, although about 285 are needed to ensure normal passenger rail services in the country. Only 113 of them are air-conditioned. More than half of the carriages were manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s, Minister of Transport and Communications Georgi Peev said during a parliamentary question-and-answer session before the Committee on Transport and Communications, in response to a question from Movement for Rights and Freedoms MP Tanser Ibryam Beiti regarding measures to ensure passenger safety and the condition of the railway system, BTA reported.

Minister Peev said that the problems in the railway sector are systemic and cannot be resolved through one-off personnel changes. According to him, a long-term programme is needed to modernise railway infrastructure, renew rolling stock, and introduce modern safety systems.

Edited by Miglena Ivanova

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov