Bulgarian holding company Bulmarket Group has invested €60 million in restoring the former locomotive and wagon workshop in Ruse, Bulgaria. This should establish a new centre for freight-wagon manufacturing, rolling-stock maintenance and railway services. Bulmarket acquired the former Locomotive and Wagon Plant (LVZ) site in Ruse in late 2020, after the historic factory had ceased operations in 2013.
The 176,000 square-metre complex includes more than 53,000 square metres of built-up space, with around 31,000 square metres substantially renovated and modernised. Seven companies already operate at the site, employing more than 210 people. The wider investment includes €17 million of funding from Bulgaria’s Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The main rail part of the complex is LVZ 1866, specialising in the repair, modernisation and manufacture of freight wagons, as well as maintenance and overhaul of diesel and electric locomotives. The facility has capacity to handle more than 1,000 wagons and 200 locomotives annually. Its infrastructure includes about 10 kilometres of internal railway tracks and workshops covering more than 38,000 square metres.
LVZ 1866 is also restarting wagon production. The plant certified its first freight wagon for production in 2025 and is developing platform, covered and specialised wagons, as well as tank wagons for fuel and other products. Tank wagon production is planned to start with an initial batch of five vehicles, eventually increasing to 20 wagons a month on a single shift.
Rail operations since 1866
Bulmarket’s investment revives a railway site with more than 150 years of industrial history. A locomotive maintenance workshop was established in Ruse in 1866 in connection with the first Bulgarian railway between Ruse and Varna. The workshop subsequently became an important locomotive and wagon repair centre, but operations ceased in 2013. Bulmarket acquired the site in December 2020 and began its phased reconstruction in 2023. The company aims eventually to create around 600 specialised jobs at the industrial park.
The project also strengthens Bulmarket’s position as an integrated regional rail freight operator. Bulgaria’s first private railway carrier operates more than 1,500 freight wagons and over 100 locomotives, with rail operations extending into Romania and Serbia.
Located on the Danube opposite Giurgiu, Ruse is Bulgaria’s main rail and road gateway to Romania and a strategic location for north-south and east-west freight flows. The restored LVZ complex therefore provides Bulmarket with an in-house maintenance and manufacturing base close to international freight corridors, reducing dependence on external rolling-stock facilities while creating capacity for third-party customers.