On June 6, the ad hoc parliamentary committee charged with investigating the circumstances that caused the deadly fire on the Sofia-Kardam train on February 28, is expected to finish its work. The committee was set up on March 6, initially with a term of one month, which was later extended by two more months, private broadcaster bTV reported.

Nine people died in the train fire in one of the carriages, sparking renewed public discussion about the plight of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ). The committee was charged with probing the causes of the fire and the actions undertaken by railways employees to prevent the accident, but also to look into the regulatory framework concerning railway transport safety.

The committee has made no headway, its deputy chairperson Roumen Angelov told Bulgarian National Radio, as quoted by Focus news agency on June 6. He said that the committee had received the information about the accident, but had not got around to examining it.

According to Angelov, the committee intentionally delayed its investigation, hoping that the public would forget about the accident. “[The reason is that] they don’t want to look at the real state of affairs at the biggest enterprise in Bulgaria [BDZ], because the real reason for this tragedy is not how the fire started, but the condition of the carriages, bad maintenance, bad management, bad financial situation, even though taxpayers have poured billions in subsidies for BDZ,” Angelov said, as quoted by Focus.