Railways in Bulgaria. Trains in Bulgaria Bulgarian Railways train schedule

Bulgarian railways are called „ Bulgarian State Railways“ and it turns out BJJ. A railway stations, respectively, ZhP (and iron Pътн A) gara(railway station).
The first railway in Bulgaria was built by the British, the Berkeley brothers in 1866. It connected the cities of Ruse and Varna.
In 1952, a railway connection between Burgas and Sofia opened. In 1909 everything railway lines became state property.
In 2005, new carriages appeared in Bulgaria - Siemens, but you can still find old German carriages on suburban routes.
I would say that Bulgaria has very well developed railway connections for such a small country - almost all major settlements are connected. It's comfortable. It is a pity that with the optimization of costs, the Bulgarian railways have reduced some international routes.
Train in Bulgarian vlak. This word comes from the verb " dragging, dragging"and was previously used for river transport.

Train from Sofia to Burgas

Now I want to talk about how to travel by train from Sofia to Burgas. Travel time is night. At 22.45 you land in Sofia and at 6.15 in Burgas.

Tickets for Bulgarian trains look like the photo below. This is a ticket to second class in a triple compartment. It costs 30.40 levs (15.58 euros) per person from Sofia to Burgas.

There are three sections: the first ticket gives you the right to travel from Sofia to Burgas, the second ticket gives you the right to use a sleeping car, where your compartment and sleeping place will be specified, the third ticket with red font is a receipt that remains with you after the conductor will take the middle ticket. At the entrance to the carriage, the conductor will take all three tickets from you, and then, upon arrival at your destination, he will return the first and third.

The carriages are divided into sleeping and seating carriages. In turn, sleeping rooms are divided into “business class”, “first class” and “second class”; seated - for "first" and "second" classes. Business class of a sleeping car means that the passenger will be in a single compartment, first class - the compartment has two berths, second class - three berths. There are two types of seated carriages - “first” and “second” classes. First class is designed as a seated compartment. The second is like an electric train. The last type is also loved by large, cheerful groups who are not going to sleep.

Shared toilet in the sleeping car

When you buy a ticket at the box office ZhP Gara, you pay for the travel and type of accommodation on the train. If you buy a ticket from Sofia to Burgas, you pay the fare, plus the type and class of the carriage. Here we get 20.40 levs (from Sofia to Burgas) plus the cost of sleeping accommodation - 10 levs.

These hygiene kits are not given to everyone and not always. Sometimes they are on the shelf in the compartment, and sometimes they are not.

However, there is no particular use for them, except for paper handkerchiefs if you forgot a towel at home - there are no other towels on Bulgarian trains.

As for other prices, a business class sleeping car costs 18 levs (9.23 euros), first class - 12 levs (6.15 euros), second class - 10 levs (5.12 euros).

Seats in a compartment are sold for 5 levs (2.56 euros) and standard seats for 50 stotinki (0.25 euros).

Pre-sale of train tickets in Bulgaria begins five days before the travel date. For holidays and summer season A twenty-day pre-sale is introduced.

You can buy a round-trip ticket, but you cannot pay for a bed/seat in advance. reverse direction. To do this, you need to go to the ticket office at the place of departure and pay extra for the type of seat there. For night routes you can buy both seats and sleeping places, for day routes - only seats. The price of a seat does not depend on the distance.

Tambour in a sleeping car

Power socket in a triple second class compartment. Here you can charge any gadget.

The second class sleeping car consists of ten compartments. This glass door separates the regular compartments from the disabled ones. Disabled compartments are spacious and have a washbasin.

Bed linen is included in the price sleeping place and you don’t have to pay extra for it. The set consists of a pillow, a pillowcase on it, two sheets, one of which replaces the duvet cover, and a “camel” blanket. There are no towels. The linen is good, clean, dry and does not smell.

Second class compartment of a sleeping car on a Bulgarian train

Interesting point about the stairs. In the photo it is in its original position. People complain that it is supposedly installed incorrectly and when using it, they want to pull the stop valve. In fact, in order to climb onto the third shelf, it is better to remove it (the ladder) from the mount and move it to the shelf.

You may get a seat in a compartment for disabled people simply because it was available at the time you purchased your train tickets, and not because you are disabled.

Washbasin in compartment

There are shelves behind the mirror.

This is the control panel for the coupe :)

Here the temperature regime, the volume of something there and the lighting are set. This compartment has a TV. True, it only showed the inscription “Sofia-Burgas”. The conductor said that it was just an information board and that it was not working properly at the moment.

There is a drawer for shoes under the hanger.

At the head of each bed there is a lamp, a button to call the conductor and some other functions.

The sleeping cars on the Sofia-Burgas-Sofia route are new - German, and have air conditioning.

The common toilet in the carriage is not locked. About forty minutes before arrival, the conductor wakes everyone up and hands out tickets that he picked up at the boarding. Neither tea nor coffee are offered; there is no restaurant or even a buffet on the train. Smoking is not allowed - there are smoke detectors throughout the carriage. When boarding a night flight, an unofficial quiet hour is announced. Surveillance cameras are installed in the corridor and if “unauthorized” movement begins, the conductor comes out to check.

Important!
Sleeping compartments in Bulgaria are divided into women's and men's. A family of three can easily buy a triple second-class sleeping compartment. In this case, a first class sleeping compartment is suitable for the couple, otherwise they will have to sleep in different compartments.

Platform of the residential complex in Burgas

"Don't want! I won't! It’s obsolete!” - with such screams, I threw my blue dress straight at my friend laughing at me. We had so much fun packing our bags for our Bulgarian vacation. This was followed by a fashion show in swimsuits and pillow fights. Why start a story about the railroad with a mention of my wardrobe? Yes, because Bulgarian trains are as obsolete as my silk dress. I got out of the situation by accessorizing the outfit with a beautiful necklace and heeled sandals. True, I moved on them like a paralyzed grasshopper. But this is a completely different story... Bulgarian railway workers also followed a similar path. Instead of sending the old trains to hell and completely replacing the rolling stock with new models, they simply refurbished the seats on the trains and added new sleeping cars. But let's move on from dresses and lyrics to practice. Today I will tell you everything about the railways of Bulgaria.

Railways of Bulgaria, what are they like?

The state company “Bulgarski Dzharzhavni Zheleznitsy” (BJ) provides its services for transporting passengers throughout most of the territory of Bulgaria. Why mostly? Yes, because many towns and villages do not have stations. And sometimes, to get to the desired point, you have to make several transfers.

Trains, as you already understood, come from the USSR. They are repaired from time to time, but they clearly do not live up to the title of “European”. However, the plus is the price of tickets. You can travel around Bulgaria on a fairly budget.

Bulgaria has international connections with Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Romania. You can look at the schedule here.

First of all, I want to talk a little about the categories of trains, so that you have an idea of ​​what and under what conditions you will have to travel to this or that town.

Categories of Bulgarian trains

Local population doesn’t bother with a detailed division of trains into categories, so any Bulgarian will say that there are only three types of trains:

• regular locals;
• fast local;
• express trains, following popular tourist routes.

I believe this information will not be enough for you. Well, I’ll be a good girl and try to tell you about all the categories of Bulgarian trains.

Types of cars

There are no countless numbers in Bulgaria various types carriages, like in Italy, for example (if you want to read about the railways of this country, then click). Everything here is extremely simple - seated cars and sleeping cars. So I’ll tell you about them.

Seated carriages

Most trains in Bulgaria are daytime, which means the vast majority of the carriages are seated. This is what they look like.

This daytime seated trains with divisions into compartments.

As you can see, there is a small corridor, the passenger seats from which are separated by glass doors. The compartment has two rows of soft seats.

In the second class, one compartment has eight seats (two four-seater sofas opposite each other), and in the first class there are six (two sofas, each consisting of three chairs), there is space for luggage, hooks for clothes and where to stretch your legs. :)

Purely theoretically, if no one else is traveling in your compartment, you can take a horizontal position and fall asleep, because the handles between adjacent seats rise.

There is also day trains with shared carriages and without division into compartments.

The seats in them are arranged according to the “2 + 2” pattern. Such compositions look like this.

Sleeping cars

They can only be found on night flights. Fortunately, the old-style carriages with six shelves and shabby walls are becoming a thing of the past. Because there is nothing good in them. There are three shelves on each side and you can’t sit down or stand up normally. There are, of course, also cars with SV-class compartments, where there are only two shelves, but this is also a dubious pleasure.

And such a gloomy corridor awaits you on old trains. And if two people are walking towards each other, then trying to pass each other can become a very intimate act. :)

Old-school trains are gradually being replaced by new, comfortable trains.

I’ll tell you about them, because if you travel by night train, then most likely it will be on these trains. Sleeping cars are divided into three classes:

• in business class, the compartment is designed for one person;
• in first class - for two passengers;
• and in the second, respectively, for three travelers.

At the entrance to the carriage we are greeted by a video camera. The corridor itself is very narrow and uncomfortable. The compartment is small and clean.

There are a lot of different sensors and buttons for regulating lighting, sound, and launching nuclear weapons.

Hooks to hang your clothes. And a ladder for those lucky enough to travel on the second and third bunks.

There is a washbasin, towel and sockets.

The toilet is also of a European format. Well, more or less European...

There is even a shower.

Among the minuses, it is necessary to mention that the sockets may be broken, there will be no water in the taps, and of the two toilets located in the carriage, only one will work - sadness. :(

It is worth remembering that such coupes are divided into men's and women's. If you plan to travel with your significant other in a second class compartment, be prepared to be seated in different compartments.

Actually, my knowledge regarding Bulgarian trains is over. Now I’ll tell you about tickets, travel discounts and options for purchasing travel passes.

Train tickets and discounts

There is very little information regarding tickets online. And spending a vacation in Bulgaria does not guarantee that you will become an expert in railway matters. It is best to refer to the official website of the railway. According to it, there are two categories of tickets: computer and blank.

Computer tickets

These e-tickets purchased through the BZD website (a little later I’ll tell you how this can be done). In addition to the classic information about the date of travel, direction, train number, ticket price, there may be a lot of other symbols on the travel card. Eg:

• 1/2R-D- ticket for children from 7 to 10 years old.
• MG- ticket for a small group traveling in one direction.
• 1/2l-B- ticket for seniors.

Honestly, there is no point in writing and deciphering all these symbols, since you won’t need them on your trip. But, if you want to be knowledgeable in everything, then keep it, by clicking on which you can find out all the necessary information.

Blank tickets

You can buy such tickets at the box office. They indicate:

• carrier name;
• train category and number;
• car number and class;
• pick-up and drop-off station on the passenger route;
• ticket validity period;
• number of ticket;
• travel date.

It is important to remember that the ticket is only valid for the train number for which it is issued. You cannot board another train in the same direction.

You can only buy e-tickets for routes listed on the website. The point of departure and arrival must be selected in the tabs, which I have indicated with arrows.

Tickets can be purchased at the station ticket office for any direction.

When purchasing tickets online, you will only need documents to accurately enter all passenger information. And this is very important. At the station, the inspector will check whether the information on the tickets matches the information on the ID card.

Note: if you buy express tickets and international routes at the ticket office, you must have your passport with you.

Travel discounts

The Bulgarian Railway provides several types of different travel passes and cards, thanks to which you can save on travel. You can see their names in the screenshot.

So, here's who has the opportunity to travel cheaper:

• a passenger who bought a ticket in both directions;
• holders of youth and classic passes;
• regular customers BJD. You will fall into this category if you often use the services of the BZD, several times a week, for example, over a fairly long period of time. In this case, you can count on discounts. But I'm talking more about useful things specifically for tourists who came to the country for a short time, so you can forget about this group of beneficiaries with peace of mind.
• groups from three to six people;
• students-citizens of any country, under 26 years of age, who travel organized group;
• Children under 7 years of age (accompanied by an adult) travel free of charge.

All more detailed and, most importantly, up-to-date information You can find out about the age of passengers and the size of discounts on the Belarusian Railways website.

Inter Rail pass

This pass gives you free train travel for a certain period. The cost of Inter Rail in Bulgaria is from 50 EUR.

Take a closer look at everything current prices, the time periods during which the ticket is valid, you can here. And you can buy such a pass simply by following this link.

Buying tickets

There are three ways to purchase tickets:

• at the register;
• at the conductor;
• on the BZD website.

I will tell you in more detail about each of the methods.

Purchase at the cash register

Tickets can be easily bought at the station ticket office: Russian is understood here. Tell the cashier the direction, date and time of departure, type and class of carriage.

By the way, ticket offices are usually open until 19:00, especially in small towns. Some stations do not have ticket offices.

For night trains, ticket sales end an hour before the train departs. In addition, when I was there, passengers on night flights had to go to the ticket office before departure, and there the cashier manually wrote down the names and surnames of travelers on a piece of paper and sorted out who was traveling in which carriage and compartment.

Purchasing a ticket on the train

You can also buy tickets from the conductor. In some cases, tickets may even cost you less than at the box office. Just don't expect to ride like a hare. Conductors pass along the train more than once.

Buy tickets online

Meet the legend! The first photo instruction on the Internet for purchasing tickets on the Bulgarian Railways website. Well, I want to believe that she is the first. And then at one time I scrolled to the fifth page in Google search and found nothing. This is some kind of exclusive material. Straight from the front line. :)

First of all, you need to register on the site. To do this, fill out the following form, indicating:

• email;
• last name;
• phone number.

And we immediately pay attention to the text that appears on the railway company’s website on the right. These are online tips to help you when purchasing a ticket. By the way, few European railway websites can boast of such a feature.

When you log into your email, you will see this message with your password. Your email will serve as your login.

Now we return to the site and go through the authorization procedure.

Now we had two possible flights: morning and evening. I prefer to travel at night, so I choose the train that leaves at 22:40. When you select a certain option, that block will turn blue.

Now we indicate the type of place. I choose a sleeping room in a second class carriage.

I have highlighted with a rectangle the form where you can select a discount option (if it was arranged in advance). At this stage, the final cost of the ticket is determined.

Now comes the fun part: choosing a location. I liked the 31st. I click on it and reserve it for myself this way.

Achtung! This is where you need to be extremely careful and double-check all the data. If everything is ok, then select the payment method.

Now we complete the payment procedure.

All that remains to be done is to sigh joyfully or sadly over the money written off from the card, print out the ticket and stomp with it to the station.

We’ve sorted out the purchase, now I’ll tell you about several interesting points regarding rail transportation in Bulgaria.

Features of railways

There is nothing special that would distinguish Bulgarian railways from our domestic ones, but still there is something you need to know about:

Summary

In order to become a guru in the field of the Bulgarian railway, I need to go there on vacation a couple more times and replenish my knowledge base. But I hope that what I have told will help you in planning your vacation in sunny country.

Have a nice trip, comfortable compartments and pleasant holiday experiences!

IN Bulgarian State Railways(Bulgarian: Bulgarian State Railways , Balgarski darzhavni zheleznitsi, abbreviated as BJ, BJD and or BJD listen)) are Bulgaria's state-owned railway company and the largest railway carrier in the country, established as a legal entity in 1885. The company's headquarters are located in the capital Sofia. Since the 1990s, BZD has faced serious competition from road transport. Over the period from 1994 to 2010, there has been a significant decline in market share in passenger and freight transport, as well as the lack of competent management worsens the situation. Until 2002, the company owned/managed the country's railway infrastructure, when, in accordance with EU regulations, a new state-owned company, the infrastructure company National Railway, was founded and became the owner of the infrastructure.

On January 1, 2002, a new law on railway transport entered into force, adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria, according to which the National Company Bulgarian State Railways Werr was divided into two separate enterprises - the railway carrier (Bulgarian State Railways EAD) and the infrastructure enterprise ( Railway infrastructure National Company)

The European Commission formally warned Bulgaria in May 2010 for non-compliance with the first railway regulation on charges of access to rail tracks. In October 2010, a further restructuring of WSS was announced, with BZD EAD becoming a holding company, and all rolling stock allocated to passenger and freight subsidiaries.

The structure of the company

Since the last reforms in 2007, a new organizational structure has been approved.

BZD Inc. (holding company with one shareholder, Republic of Bulgaria)

• BZD Putnicheski PREVOZI Ltd. - responsibility for Passenger Transportation. The company carried 31.36 million passengers in 2009.
• BZD Tovární PREVOZI Ltd. - Cargo operations and expeditions with additional BDZ accelerated Ltd. The company carried 13.3 million tons of cargo in 2009 in 3.1 million ton-kilometers. Privatization was undertaken in 2012, but was withdrawn in 2013 due to financial problems.
• BZD Traktzionen Podvizhen Sustav Ltd. - control and maintenance locomotive.
• BDZ-Konchar Inc. - a joint venture between BZDAMI EAD and KONČAR group from Croatia with the main scope of work being locomotive repairs and modernization.

However, there are many problems with organizational structure holding. In order to optimize operating costs, many employees from the administration must be fired. There is an obvious lack of efficiency in management and the main goal of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Telecommunications is to make the enterprise profitable.

traction current

Narrow gauge railways

The picturesque Septemvri-Dobrinishte narrow gauge line was completed in 1945 and passes through Avramova station, which is the highest railway station in the Balkans at 1267.4 meters. Then it goes through summer and winter tourist centre Bansko. The line is 760mm gauge, non-electrified, and primarily serves diesel powered locomotives, however there are well-preserved steam locomotives that provide the attraction of the tour. Although very attractive to tourists, it is also widely used local residents for public transport purposes.

Railways are not available everywhere in Bulgaria, and no one bothers to build new ones, exploiting the heritage of previous centuries.
Painted train at the station in Varna The first line was built between Ruse and Varna in 1865. Why so far from the capital? Because Bulgaria was part Ottoman Empire, and was not yet the capital. And it was already a large city, the most European in Bulgaria, although its true heyday began a little later. Later, other railway lines began to open, but not everywhere. With direct trains, things are also the same - you have to get to many cities with one, or even two or three transfers, which, of course, is very inconvenient. But it’s okay, over time you get used to the fact that not every major city can be reached comfortably by rail in Bulgaria. Well, nothing, but there are buses.
Trains run not only throughout Bulgaria, but also abroad. Previously, the Moscow-Kyiv-Bucharest-Sofia train ran, and in the summer additional cars were attached to it, which went to Varna and Burgas. Travel time is 2 days, the cost of a ticket in a compartment is 100 euros. It was a good time. Then, it seems, they launched a train that went from Moscow across all of Europe, long and expensive, but for some reason nothing was heard about it for a long time. It is possible that there was simply no one willing to pay transit visas and spend 52 hours on a long and expensive journey.

Trains

We really liked the electric train. On Russian websites you can read that the Bulgarian railways are morally outdated, and the rolling stock has not been updated for a long time. This is not entirely true. Along with the well-deserved seating carriages, there are sleeping carriages - with nice compartments for 3 people, with washbasins, comfortable stairs, air conditioning and other amenities. We traveled in such a coupe to Sofia in 2014 and were very pleased.
We were terribly scolded at the “sit-down” carriages. They say it’s incredibly dirty there, the smell, the crowd is kind of bad. However, we had very good impressions of the Varna-Plovdiv train, which was very reminiscent of the train to Hogwarts. But I liked the carriages on the Varna-Sofia route much less - they resembled an ordinary train, albeit with toilets and without sellers/singers/beggars. Tickets can be purchased first or second class. The whole difference is in the number of seats in the compartment: in the first class there are 6, and in the second class there are 8. In principle, there is no noticeable difference, as far as we can judge. The class of the carriage is written on the outside.
And between Dobrich and Varna there runs a very luxurious train with doors that open at the touch of a button and other delights. By the way, stops are announced there, unlike regular trains. And in general it’s very cozy and beautiful, but the windows are a little dirty. In general, dirty windows are also typical for trains. long distance, but we got the impression that the rest of the cars were quite decent.

Stations

Empty station in Dobrich At the same time, the stations look rather neglected. If Sofia or Plovdiv are normal, then the Dobrich station is a rather sad Soviet-built building, where, judging by the evacuation scheme, there was once a restaurant and shops, but today all that remains of its former luxury are chairs in a dusty waiting room and a couple of working cash desks. There’s not even a proper scoreboard, just a dusty schedule. Varna Station looks more cheerful, there are at least some cafes and kiosks there. And Rusensky made an indelible impression on us. A huge building with echoing and completely empty corridors, some mysterious nooks, giant compartments in a second-class carriage designed for 8 people, empty halls, high ceilings. When we were there, the storage room was closed without explanation, and all the toilets were locked, so we did not have any fondness for this station.
A serious problem of many railway stations and stations is the lack of numbering of platforms. If there is only one platform in Dobrich, you can’t go wrong, but at railway junctions the lack of signs can play a cruel joke, especially if you find yourself at this station for the first time and there is no one to ask. We already had the experience of a little confusion - we got on the wrong train, but, fortunately, we left not far away; everything became clear when checking the tickets. By the way, tickets are checked constantly, the conductor runs the train between all stations. If for some reason you were unable to purchase travel document in advance, The sleeping cars are very pleasant, each compartment has air conditioning and the conductor will arrange it for you.
All information about railways is collected on the BDZ website - http://www.bdz.bg/bg/. Here you can find out the schedule, buy (book) tickets online, and find out all kinds of news. There is also information about discounts. However, when we arrived at the station and began to ask for tickets, armed with this information, we were told that the discounts were not valid. Now we no longer remember what exactly was discussed, maybe we were not prepared correctly. But when writing this article, we tried to buy online ticket from Dobrich to - and nothing came of it. It turns out that Dobrich tickets are not sold online. Moreover, according to reviews, they are not sold online and from other cities. These are the sudden surprises.

Ticket prices

Ticket prices are quite affordable; traveling by train is cheaper than by bus. But usually it takes longer, including due to transplants. Nevertheless, we like this method of travel, if only for the reason that trains travel calmly through tunnels, and do not rush along mountain serpentines, risking falling into the abyss.
Discounts are offered for various reasons (information from the Belarusian Railways website, we cannot guarantee in any way that when purchasing a ticket it will not turn out that today and specifically you will be denied them):

Leisure trips

In addition to normal trains, Belarusian Railways also offers entertainment ones. These are interesting trips, which we will probably write about separately. Speaking of entertainment: there is a museum in Ruse railway transport. We didn’t have time to visit there, which we greatly regret, because there are quite interesting exhibits there.

You may also be interested in our other articles:

Traveling by train in Bulgaria is a unique experience for both the traveler and the railway fan. In this mountain Balkan country an extensive network of passenger lines has been preserved, allowing you to travel by train to almost any place, even the most remote locality high in the mountains. Trains and carriages are usually old, rickety and not very clean, and the average age of the rolling stock is clearly older than you and me. But this is also part of the color! Add to this the fantastic Balkan mountains, gorges, waterfalls and snowy peaks along the trip and get a real highlight on the map southern Europe. Unfortunately, all this will not last long - the Bulgarian railways (like the neighboring Greek ones) are extremely inefficient and unprofitable. At the same time, travel costs mere pennies, since BJW is entirely subsidized by the state. Without a doubt, in the very near future the number of lines will be reduced and the three to five main ones will remain between major cities countries. Hurry while all this exotic stuff still exists.

Take a look at how extensive the railway network is in this small country. And don't forget that there are mountains there! Almost the entire country is made up of two ridges of the Balkan mountains, stretching parallel to each other from the border with Serbia and Macedonia to the Black Sea -

Today we are leaving Bulgaria, but late in the evening. And so we decided to take a ride to some interesting place near Sofia in order to return to the plane in time. Why not see the small town of Vratsa, 80 km north of Sofia, which is interesting for its ice cave, a waterfall and mountains literally towering over it like a wall? These are a lot of picturesque routes for walks and hikes. That's where we'll go.

In principle, tickets can be purchased in advance through the website of the Bulgarian railway BJ, but there is little point in this. Trains are rarely full and there are no problems with purchasing at the ticket office. Just like there are no queues in front of the cash registers. Sofia station is huge and has long been out of proportion to the relatively modest number of people using it -

There are usually no people near the ticket office, since many people prefer to buy a ticket from the conductor, while others have travel cards. The majority of Bulgarians who use trains are people living somewhere in the suburbs and commuting to Sofia for work.

In recent years, the station has been improved; it has become clean and comfortable. When I first came here in 2000, everything was bad: dirt, homeless people, shopping stalls on every corner, pickpockets. Trash, in a word. Having been here once, I no longer wanted to return. Now everything is different -

An underground passage to the tracks, where a decade and a half ago whole camps of gypsies lived, and now it’s straight up Europe -

But the trains for the most part have not changed and are still mostly old, covered in graffiti and not very clean inside. Let's take a ride and take a closer look -

Old German carriages, produced back in the seventies -

Creepy passages, dirty and downright smelly -

It's quite comfortable inside, the ventilation works fine. However, in October it is still quite warm and the windows still open while driving -

This is our ticket, it is for three and costs 16.50 leva (8 euros) in total -

Rules for traveling by rail, hanging in every carriage. You can practice your Bulgarian language -

As you guessed correctly, toilets are a weak point on Bulgarian trains. They are as tired of life as the carriages themselves. Take this as a given and if you are an esthete, try to relieve yourself before the trip. But if it’s “hot”, then you can try it -

None of the carriages (well, I looked in three out of seven) had a working drain or hand-washing faucet. There is no paper anywhere either. The moral of this is to take care of wet hand wipes and toilet paper.

The door separating the carriage from the locomotive pulling us is not fixed in any way and is tied to a string -

At each stop, the conductor opens the door, looks out, and if he doesn’t see any hurrying passengers, then he waves his hand to the driver, saying, let’s go -

At the exit from Sofia there are abandoned factories -

But after half an hour, picturesque mountains and colorful villages begin -

It’s noticeably cooler in the mountains than in the capital and it’s starting to rain a little -

The stations are almost all old and many of them are completely empty. We stop, a couple of people get out and immediately move on -

And some stations are completely abandoned. Bulgaria is experiencing the most serious demographic crisis today; its population, which stood at exactly 10 million in 1989, has dropped to 7 million today due to low birth rates and mass migration to Western Europe. In the capital of the country, Sofia, as well as in Varna and Plovdiv, the population decline is felt to a lesser extent. Because people from rural areas leave their villages and go to the city. But provincial towns and villages are dying out before our eyes, as well as their railway stations. It's a sad sight -

Mezdra is a fairly large hub city in the north-west of the country. Well, how big? Under communism, about twenty thousand people lived here, today there are not even ten thousand. Here we have a 20-minute stop, the locomotive is being interchanged. It's time to take a walk and see the station -

The most common locomotive in Bulgaria is the good old Skoda -

I said above that our locomotive is being recoupled. This is not entirely accurate. The locomotive just came from the other side and will now pull us in a different direction. First, a few kilometers back where we came from, but then we will go west, to the city of Vratsa -

Mezdra station with waiting room -

Ticket offices -

Colorful schedules, still set manually -

There is poverty and decay all around -

A passing train from Varna on the Black Sea to Sofia -

Today I am the leader of the “expedition”, it’s true -

Vratsa is located fifteen kilometers west of Mezdra, it takes about twenty minutes to drive and here we are. And our train departs north, towards the city of Vidin on the banks of the Danube -

Inside the station there is a mystical darkness and the smell of lack of repair, which is a combination of dust, unclean bodies, a refreshing breeze from the public toilet and... sandwiches. Romance!

But the schedules here, unlike Mezdra, are electronic -

I’ll tell you about this cool town and its attractions separately.