Sun, Nov 22 2009
Photo: Maria Subotinova
Temporary wage cut is part of anti-crisis agreement reached with unions earlier in 2009. The National Railway Infrastructure Company has a 50 million leva deficit.
Bulgaria’s railways prove woefully inefficient in an emergency
Bulgarian Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov says that state railways BDZ should review its communications and accident drills after a fatal car accident in which an electricity pylon was knocked on to a railway line, disrupting rail traffic between Sofia and Plovdiv for seven hours – with passengers left in the dark about the disruption in service.
Two trains, one bound for Bourgas from Sofia and the other headed from the Black Sea to the capital, will aim to ease the heavy traffic during the peak summer season.
A total of 84 extra trains will be put in operation to meet the higher number of passengers during the Orthodox Easter holidays on April 17-21 2009
Bulgaria's Cabinet approved a new strategy for the development of the country's railways, meant to improve the quality and safety of the service to European Union standards, but at the same time made a big cut in the funding allocated to reach those goals. The draft strategy was submitted by Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev for Cabinet approval in October 2008 and envisioned 6.5 billion leva being spent by 2013.
Another chilling breeze from the global crunch has reached Bulgaria, with the Minister of Transport Petar Moutafchiev announcing on November 20 that the Bulgarian state railways BDZ will make 1250 redundancies in order to unload some of the burden from the company and "optimise its expenses". As a paramount reason for thinning the ranks of BDZ's employees, Moutafchiev pointed out the recent predicament of Kremikovtzi steel plant, which has been declared bankrupt.
How many people are needed to change a 300kg railway track? The answer is six. This takes several hours and involves pickaxes and a great deal of physical exertion from the workers. In effect, this has always been the modus operandi within the Bulgarian railways sector - using working methods dating back to the beginning of the 20th century - as well as a highly inefficient allocation of resources.
Bulgaria would inject 6.5 billion leva in upgrading the country's railways by 2013 if the plan put forth by Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev and the chairperson of Parliament's transport committee Yordan Mirchev is adopted by the Cabinet, Dnevnik daily reported. Moutafchiev presented the plan on October 17 and said that the figure was based on "detailed calculations" of how many new train engines, coaches and wagons needed to be bought, as well as the exact cost of repairing or replacing existing railway infrastructure.
On August 12, Bulgarian state railways BDZ started the gradual retirement of electrical carriages from series 32 and 33, which are more than 35 years old, the company said in a statement on August 11. Currently 140 economy class trains providing various itineraries in Bulgaria are subject to retirement. "In connection to the improvement of transport service safety, BDZ performed an additional check of the technical and fire alarm installations of all electrical carriages from series 32 and 33, as they have been in use for more than 35 years," BDZ said.
The payroll of Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) would be cut down by 1500 to 1600 people, the head of the railwaymen's labour union, Petar Bounev, told a news conference on July 23 2008. The staff redundancies come at a time when BDZ is already understaffed and, as a result, offering services of sub-par quality, Bounev said as quoted by Focus news agency.
The European Commission is taking Bulgaria to court for delays in providing Sofia with adequate waste disposal facilities.
James Warlick is the spouse of Mary Warlick, director of the office of Russian affairs at the US state department, who has been nominated to serve as ambassador to Serbia
Bulgaria’s Health Ministry announced on November 20 2009 that the flu epidemic declared two weeks earlier is at an end as rates of infection decline. The announcement coincides with reports of two deaths from A (H1N1) flu in Bulgaria.
Acting on allegations by Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria leader Ivan Kostov, prosecutors and Government officials are to probe deals by which Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader Ahmed Dogan acquired various properties.
Prosecutors allege that a deal agreed by the former defence minister caused losses of 12.9 million leva.
Cosmos,
why "excuse"?
No company or government should keep people they don't need, nor should they need and "excuse" to let them go.
On the other hand, no company or government would let people they need go.
The idea that the government owes jobs to 15,000 people and need an excuse to get rid of them is very commie time thinking.
Dianne is right by using the word "opportunity", for making those changes that should've been made long time a go.
Well said its also in other countries just an excuse to lay off workers.
I somehow feel that the current credit crisis has been rather a golden oportunity for the BDZ management to shed a lot of its overheads. If you look at the real figures, BDZ has been in a major decline since 1990....Maybe its time to replace the management rather than the workers.