BULGARIA: Following a prolonged procurement process, a consortium of Alstom and RVP Invest has been selected to supply 35 single-deck electric multiple-units.
The order — which is awaiting signature — is worth €445m, including 15 years of maintenance.
The national Recovery & Resilience Plan had allocated €559m for the procurement of rolling stock, but required delivery to a tight August 2026 deadline.
‘The European Commission confirmed that all trainsets that will be delivered by the end of August 2026 will be fully financed through the resilience plan, and the rest through the national budget funds’, Minister of Transport & Communications Grozdan Spasov Karadzhov said when the Alstom consortium was named preferred bidder on March 7. ‘The deadline for completing the order is 28 months and only Alstom has said that they can meet it.’
Tenders were called in early 2024, with Alstom, Pesa, Škoda and Stadler invited to submit offers through a negotiated procedure. Stadler was selected as preferred bidder but withdrew from the process in July, reportedly because it would difficult to meet the delivery schedule. The Ministry of Transport then selected second rank bidder Pesa Bydgoszcz.
However, in autumn 2024 the ministry said no manufacturer was capable of delivery within such a short timescale. In late December the ministry wrote to Alstom, Pesa and Stadler asking them to confirm their offers remained valid, but Stadler declined.
In September 2024 Škoda beat a consortium of Alstom and RVP Invest to win a separate contract to supply 25 EMUs, with a €258m firm order for 20 four-car RegioPanter EMUs to be delivered in 2026 for use on long distance services from Sofia to Burgas, Varna and Ruse. The order includes staff training and 15 years of maintenance. Another five optional trains were ordered in November 2024.
