Ivkoni Express to Lease 92 Trains from BDZ
First private passenger rail operator Ivkoni Express will lease 92 locomotives, multiple units and carriages from state-owned BDZ and take over 25% of services on 13 December.
Illustration: AI-generated image
The first private passenger railway operator in Bulgaria, Ivkoni Express, will lease 92 locomotives, multiple units and carriages from the state-owned BDZ Passenger Services. The decision, approved by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, is a key step before Ivkoni takes over a quarter of the country's passenger rail services.
Under the arrangement, Ivkoni Express will also receive 15 new passenger trains on lease from the state. The two companies still need to agree on a market price for the rolling stock, according to the government decision.
From 13 December 2026, Ivkoni Express will operate passenger services on the Northern and Southern railway regions, which together account for 25% of Bulgaria's rail passenger traffic. State-owned BDZ will continue to run the remaining 75%, including the Western region with the busiest routes from Sofia to the Black Sea coast.
The contracts for the next 12 years were signed in February, in the final days of the government of Rosen Zhelyazkov. The liberalisation of passenger rail was one of the reforms under Bulgaria's Recovery and Resilience Plan, a condition for receiving EU funds for new rolling stock.
For the Northern region, Ivkoni Express will receive rolling stock that includes no first-class carriages, and 11 of the 28 carriages are currently under repair. It will also use three new Škoda electric multiple units and five new Alstom multiple units as reserve stock. In total, the company will have 59 units to serve 14% of national passenger services.
For the Southern region, Ivkoni will get two first-class carriages, plus two reserve electric locomotives and four reserve carriages, two of which are first class. The new trains for this region include three Škoda and four Alstom multiple units. The company will have 48 units to cover 11% of national services.
Staff transfer remains a challenge. Initially 813 BDZ employees were expected to move to Ivkoni, but the number has been reduced to 580, according to the Podkrepa trade union. Transport Minister Georgi Peev has asked for an agreement to protect workers' rights, including preserving working conditions and following the principle that the employee follows the service. BDZ will initially sell tickets for both operators, with full integration of sales systems expected in early April 2027.
The state subsidy will be distributed proportionally to the activity performed by each operator, the minister said.
