Bulgaria gets the CREAM
December 11, 2009
Although Eastern Europe has been integrated in the EU over the years, infrastructure there is still far from perfect. The Balkans are a key corridor for transporting goods internationally, but lack proper railways and roads that can handle the international traffic.
Recent updates show that there is a tendency for combined efforts to improve this situation.
Article Source:World Cargo news
The 26 operating partners of the EU’s CREAM (Customer-driven Rail-freight services on a European mega-corridor based on Advanced business and operating Models) project and other stakeholders from the transport sector have executed a declaration to support the development of intermodal transport in Bulgaria.
The declaration, which underlines the need to strengthen the position of rail in South East Europe, has been handed over to the Bulgarian government.
According to HaCon Ingenieurgesellschaft and KombiConsult, the coordinators of the CREAM project, the enlargement of the European Union has seen Bulgaria become an important focal point for rail transport with freight corridors to Greece and Turkey experiencing dynamic economic development in recent years. As soon as the global economic crisis is over, transport in these regions is expected to experience high growth rates again.
Currently there is only one outdated container terminal in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, which is not capable of processing the required freight volumes. The lack of infrastructure is also a constraint on the optimal capacity usage of the pan-European transport corridors 4, 8 and 10.
At present, Budapest and Belgrade represent the last major hubs for container transport in the direction of South East Europe. The signatories of the declaration propose to implement effective organisational structures for terminal development and operation and to build a high-capacity container transhipment terminal in the Sofia region.
With the expansion of terminal transhipment capacity in Sofia, the prospects for the development of international, intermodal freight transport are expected to improve dramatically
Not only will Sofia benefit from its integration in the intermodal transport network, but shorter journey times and better quality should result.
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