The village of Voluyak, northwest of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, is on par to become a new rail freight hub for connectivity throughout the Balkans. Construction of a new terminal in the village recently began, and it will be the first facility near Sofia capable of handling 740-metre trains.
“Currently, there is no similar place in the capital where a train composition with a length of 740 metres can be processed without separation”, said the Bulgarian minister of transport Grozdan Karadjov. The facility will have capacity for 300 thousand tons of conventional cargo and 70 thousand intermodal units every year.
The terminal will be managed by a Bulgarian private freight forwarding company, Transexpress. The project is funded by the Connecting Europe Facility 2021-2027 with a little under 8,6 million euros. According to Bulgarian media, Transexpress will have to add 1,5 million euros, for a total investment of around 10 million euros. Construction of the new terminal should take 29 months, thus it is expected to be ready by the end of summer 2027.