Iceland Volcano Stirs Ground Transportation Havoc

Travelers wait following the cancellation flights to northern Europe at Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy. Photo by BGNES

All trains traveling from Sofia to Western Europe are sold out, the Bulgarian State railroads, BDZ, inform Saturday.

The most sought after destinations are Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels.

The railroad travel agency “Rila” say that in order to reach Paris, passengers must travel from Sofia to Belgrade, then catch a train to Zurich and then transfer to Paris.

Berlin can be reached either through Prague or through Vienna, while to get to Brussels one must travel to Munich and then to Cologne. All 3 destinations take days to be reached by train.

The one-way ticket for a bed in a sleeping car in the Sofia-Vienna train costs BGN 196 for second class; the price to Amsterdam is BGN 500. BDZ offers direct cars to Belgrade, Vienna, Budapest and Istanbul.

The train travel has increased over the ash cloud from a volcano in Iceland drifting across Europe, causing chaos and disruptions in air traffic for the third day in a row with countries closing their air space one after another.

The European ground transportation system is overloaded and Eurostar cross-channel rail service said it had never seen so many passengers on one day with trains fully booked until Monday. Tickets are sold out for most international destinations despite the additional trains.

Traffic is also very heavy on all major European roads and highways while ferryboats are being attacked by passengers – the French P&O had serviced Friday 6 000 passengers from 40 000 wishing to use it compared to 100 to 200 on a normal Friday.

Virtually all of Europe's major airports remain closed and millions of air travelers are stranded as thousands of flights are being canceled since Wednesday. The mayhem is caused by the drifting mixture of glass, sand and rock particles could be catastrophic to aircraft.

The disruptions began when the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano erupted for the second time in a month and will continue for certain at least through the entire weekend while Airlines are losing USD 200 M a day.

All major airports in Europe, including the 3 busiest - Heathrow, Frankfurt and Charles de Gaulle, have been affected by the closures. The travel chaos has been felt as far away as North America and Asia, with the cancellation of dozens of Europe-bound flights.

Bulgaria is closing its northern air space at midnight.

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