Pimk wants to move passengers on more railway routes in Bulgaria

At the end of May, Pimk Rail Express officially confirmed its interest in providing passenger services on the railway route between Sofia and Burgas with stops in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. The Plovdiv-based company has now submitted a request to also operate additional railway routes in Bulgaria.

On August 1, the company, which has the ambition to be the first private railway operator in the Balkan country, filed a new notification of a planned train service. The information was first reported by Transportal. The document itself is difficult to locate on the website of the Railway Administration Executive Agency. It can be found in a section related to the "Assessment of the economic equilibrium of the contract for public transport services when applying for a new passenger transport service".

From the document it becomes clear that Pimk wants to move passengers on 4 additional routes, starting in December 2026. These are:

• From Sofia to Radomir with a stop in Pernik;
• Karnobat - Varna;
• Plovdiv - Asenovgrad;
• From Sofia to Varna with stops in Gorna Oryahovitsa and Shumen

Proposed timetables for these services are also available in the document. For example, on the line Sofia - Pernik - Radomir, the train is scheduled to leave Sofia at 7:30 a.m. and arrive in Radomir at 8:45 a.m. In the opposite direction, the schedule is the same.

The company claims that it will cover the distance from Varna to Karnobat in 2 hours and 10 minutes, leaving the coastal city at 7:00 a.m. and arriving in Karnobat at 9:10 a.m. In the opposite direction, the train will depart at 8:00 a.m.

On the route between Plovdiv and Asenovgrad, the services will be more frequent. The company plans to depart from Plovdiv several times a day – at 5:00 a.m., 6:40 a.m., 8:20 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and 11:40 a.m. Passenger train departures from Asenovgrad will be at 5:50 AM, 7:30 AM, 9:10 AM, 10:50 AM as well as 12:30 PM. The distance will be covered in about 28 minutes as per the schedule.

The route from Sofia to Varna will take 6 hours and 39 minutes. The company will also operate a night train that will leave Sofia at 00:10 and arrive in Varna at 06:49. Stops are planned in Mezdra, Pleven, Gorna Oryahovitsa and Shumen. There will also be a train in the opposite direction, from Varna to the capital, with the same departing time.

Pimk intends to transport passengers on this cross-country route during the day as well, departing at 7:20 a.m. and at 3:00 p.m. The same departing times are planned in the opposite direction - from Varna to Sofia.

The railway company plans to carry out its services using 2 Siemens Smartron electric locomotives and 6 renovated train cars, which are currently being overhauled at the Khan Krum train repair shop in Veliki Preslav. The rolling stock will be leased by IP Trans AD, which is part of Pimk Rail Holding AD.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov