Bulgarian Railways Get 1st New Sleeping Cars in 30 Years, from Turkey

Bulgaria's state railways have gone through with an order for sleeping cars from Turkey. Photo by BGNES

The highly troubled Bulgarian State Railways co BDZ has received its first 12 sleeping cars as part of an order of a total of 30 sleeping cars from Turkey's state owned manufacturer Tuvasas.

The last time the Bulgarian State Railways bought new sleeping cars was in 1982, and the last time the company bought regular cars was in 1988.

The 12 sleeping cars are the first new ones to be purchased by BDZ in the past 30 years, Bulgarian Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski stated at a ceremony in Turkey's Adapazari where the purchase was presented to the public, as cited by the Bulgarian government press service.

Turkey's Transport Minister Binali Yildirim also attended the ceremony.

Moskovski declared that the new sleeping cars are the start of the gradual renewal of Bulgaria's railway transport. He said Tuvesas was expected to deliver the rest of the sleeping cars by the end of 2012.

He also noted that in July 2012 Bulgaria will launch the modernized section of the Plovdiv-Svilengrad railway leading to the Turkish border, allowing trains to run by 160 km/h.

Bulgaria commissioned Tuvesas to build the 30 sleeping cars back in December 2010 in a BGN 63 M deal.

In the fall of 2010, Tuvasas defeated in court the Bulgarian state railways over the same order as BDZ tried to cancel the deal after initially contracting the Turkish company.

In considering Tuvasas's appeal, a Bulgarian court came to a conclusion the tender could not be canceled. Following the decision BDZ had to accept 30 sleeping cars from Tuvasas in accordance with the conditions of the tender.

The tender process dates back to the initial bidding process of April 11, 2008, after which Adapazari-based Turkish company Tuvasas offered to produce the wagons for nearly EUR 1 M less than its closest competitor.

BDZ had to finalize the agreement in the month following bidding, but the state company allegedly used the budget for other purposes.

After the general elections in July 2009, the new government in Sofia reshuffled the BDZ administration. BDZ refused to inform the Turkish company of reported misuse of funds and canceled the tender altogether in July.

Later, BDZ opened another tender, prompting Tuvasas to appeal to Bulgaria's Competition Protection Commission. The Commission rejected the appeal and Tuvasas was forced to go to the higher court.

According to the court decision, BDZ either had to purchase the sleeping cars or had to pay substantial damages to Tuvasas.

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