Sofia to Start Building Third Metro Line This Year

With Bulgaria set to get EUR 400 M in EU funding in 2014-2020 for building sections of the underground railway system in Sofia, the construction of a third line is planned to start this year, city mayor Yordanka Fandakova said on Friday.

The third metro line will link the city’s southwestern neighbourhoods with its eastern parts. Its first section, to stretch from Krasno Selo neighbourhood to the city centre, will be seven kilometers long with seven stations and will considerably ease traffic on some of the most congested boulevards in Sofia.

Speaking on BNR radio station, Fandakova also said that two extensions to the existing red line, or Line 1, with a combined length of nine kilometers are expected to enter service in 2015.

One of the extensions will reach Sofia international airport, while the other will connect the city’s western neighbourhoods with the business park in the southeastern outskirts of Sofia where the offices of major Bulgarian and international companies are based.

The two extensions are expected to add a further 90,000 people a day to the number of commuters using the Sofia metro.

The construction of a southward extension to the blue line, or Line 2, by around three km and two stations is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, said Fandakova.

The operating sections of the red and the blue line currently are being used by over 450,000 commuters a day. 

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