SOFIA (Bulgaria), September 19 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria’s Ecologistics said the arrival on Saturday of a container block train from Slovenia marked the official launch into operation near Sofia of the country's first dedicated intermodal terminal.
A total of 6.0 million levs ($4.2 million/3.1 million euro) have been poured into the Yana terminal project so far with total investment planned to eventually reach 26 million levs, Ecologistics, the logistics division of one of the country's leading industrial recycling companies, Ecometal, said in a statement on its website.
The block train that arrived on Saturday originated in the Adriatic port of Koper.
Ecologistics, which operates the terminal, said container block trains have so far only transited Bulgaria due to the absence in the country of operational intermodal terminals with sufficient capacity.
The Yana terminal is expected to process around 400 containers within three months and to welcome one block train originating from Koper on a weekly basis.
Ecologistics said it is in talks with six intermodal operators to arrange the handling of regular container train lines.
The Yana terminal is located at the intersection of three pan-European Corridors: Corridor IV (Berlin-Thessaloniki), Corridor VII (Duras-Varna) and Corridor X (Salzburg-Istanbul).
The terminal can handle up to 35,000 containers a year, a capacity it will reach gradually, Ecologistics said.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)