Snowdrifts in north-eastern Bulgaria close railway line, roads
The railway line between the north-eastern Bulgarian villages of Samuil and Kaspichan, on the Rousse-Varna line, was closed on January 18 because of heavy snowdrifts.
The closure was ordered after two goods trains owned by private carriers got into difficulties because of snowdrifts the night before.
One of the trains reportedly was owned by Bulmarket, a name that was in the headlines in December 2016 because of the gas tank transport train fatal explosion in the village of Hitrino.
Bulgaria’s National Railway Infrastructure Company said that throughout the rest of the country, railway lines were passable. Emergency teams were ready to respond promptly in the event of difficulties, the company said.
Earlier on January 18, the Rousse – Razgrad road was closed to all vehicles because of bad weather.
On some sections of Bulgaria’s Trakiya and Hemus motorways, restrictions on heavy lorries were introduced.
Twenty-three districts in Bulgaria were subject to a “code yellow” potentially dangerous weather warning on June 18 because of snowdrifts.
According to a report by Bulgarian National Television, larger cities in the country had begun clearing away heaped-up snow from pavements and roadsides. Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandukova said that this was necessary for the convenience of pedestrians and traffic. Varna and Dobrich, however, said that they would not doing any snow-clearing as they did not have enough money and saw the exercise as pointless.
/Panorama
