A third private operator: Ivkoni Express wants to carry passengers on two Bulgarian railway routes

Ivkoni Express is the third private company that has expressed interest in entering the passenger segment of the Bulgarian railway services market. The company submitted documents to acquire a license to the "Railway Administration" Executive Agency in October showing interest in operating two routes from the beginning of the summer of 2025. This information was revealed by the Union Ivkoni transport operator in response to an inquiry from Economic.bg.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Transport confirmed to our media outlet late last month that a third company wants to carry passengers and that the upcoming contract order will be divided into three lots. However, it did not confirm the name of the enterprise.

The latter was revealed a week ago by Mediapool, but again without adding more information.

From the company's responses to Economic.bg, it now becomes clear that the plan is to start the services only on certain days of the week - mainly on weekends and holidays. The procedure for issuing a license is still ongoing though.

There are two railway routes that Ivkoni Express will focus on - one from Sofia to Varna with an intermediate stop in Gorna Oryahovitsa, and another from Sofia to Burgas with a stop in Karlovo. The company hopes that this will become a reality at the beginning of the summer tourist season in 2025. 

Our intentions are for the transportation to be carried out with electric multiple unit trains, suitable for medium and long-distance travel and providing passengers with a good level of comfort," the company stated.

You may recall that Plovdiv's Pimk also wants to operate passenger trains to the coast, but it plans to make stops in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora on the Sofia-Burgas line. On the Sofia-Varna line, the stops will be in Gorna Oryahovitsa and Shumen.

Given Ivkoni Express's request to carry passengers mainly on weekends and holidays, there will be no competition between the two companies for these routes.

As for the Stara Zagora-based Railimpex, it is not yet clear which routes it will focus on.

Who are Ivkoni Express?

Ivkoni Express was registered as a company in the Bulgarian Commercial Registry in June this year. It has an initial capital of 100,000 euros, and its sole owner is Georgi Lyubomirov Atanasov. He is also the executive director.

Its board of directors has three members and also includes Ivaylo Dimitrov Stoyanov and Teodora Rumenova Veleva. Stoyanov is its chairman. Georgi Atanasov and Ivaylo Stoyanov are the general managers of the Union Ivkoni bus company, according to the Commercial Registry.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov