Crash in the Railway System: An Accident Stopped the Trains in Southern Bulgaria

An accident on the railway between Kostenets and Belovo stations stopped the movement of many trains in southern Bulgaria on the main railway line Plovdiv-Sofia and caused delays on almost all lines, incl. in Northern Bulgaria.

Because of the incident, about which "Bulgarian Railways" (BDZ) does not give any details, the fast train from Varna to Sofia (БВ 8656) is being redirected from Dimitrovgrad via Mihailovo, Filipovo, Karlovo, Kazichene. The delay is about 115 minutes.

The Plovdiv-Sofia trains have also been traveling since the morning, informed passengers who are disappointed that they have not been offered alternative routes or bus transportation. They were told that traffic was stopped, with no further explanation.

OFFNews reported that BDZ said that a cargo of a private carrier was scattered along the railway line. Because of this, traffic was temporarily stopped, but by 9 a.m. it was reopened. However, delays have piled up. Trains are currently running, the carrier said.

However, passengers are outraged that no one gave adequate and timely information about the stopped trains and they were unable to complete their journeys. "Nobody warned us, we had a ticket to Sofia to get to the airport. We only found out at the station that we couldn't travel," said a passenger from Pazardzhik to OFFNews. "How come no one reported this, thousands of people are affected", she asks.

Here is what a reference on the BDZ website indicates:

Passenger train Num. 10112 (Plovdiv 09:45 - Sofia 13:52) is standing at Septemvri station due to waiting for an opportunity to pass another train, the carrier announced after 10 a.m. today.

Fast train Num. 2640, Yantra (Gorna Oryahovitsa 05:15 - Plovdiv 12:30) stops at...