Sofia Central Station
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The central railway station Sofia ( Bulgarian Централна гара София / Sofia Zentralna gara / Central Railway Station Sofia or Централна железопътна гара София / Sofia Zentralna schelesopatna gara / Central railway station Sofia) is the main station of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. He is of the Sofiotern often only briefly as Sofia station ( Bulg Гара София / Sofia Gara ) or Hauptbahnhof ( Bulg Централна гара / Zentralna gara ) refers. He is the most important railway station of Sofia and the largest railway station in Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian Minister of Transport plans (April 2010 ) to lease the station as a concession operation or to operate as a public-private partnership, as well as the railway stations in Sofia Podujane, Plovdiv and Varna, the ports of Burgas, Varna, Russe, Vidin and Lom and Airports in Plovdiv, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Stara Zagora and Rousse.
Currently, the station is still owned by the railway infrastructure company ( Национална Компания Железопътна Инфраструктура / Nazionalna Kompanija Schelesopatna Infrastruktura / National Company Railway Infrastructure in short, НКЖИ / NKŽI ). This was created in 2002 with the splitting of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ ) into an operator and an infrastructure company. The Bulgarian State Railways, founded in 1888, had the state monopoly on rail transport in Bulgaria and was always also the owner of the Sofia Central Station.
Location
The train station is about a kilometer north of Lion's Bridge, on the Boulevard Knjaginja Maria Louisa. Just east of the station is adjacent to the newly built bus station Sofia.
Just north of the railway station, the district Orlandowzi follows, with a thermal power plant in the north and the central cemetery Sofia in the Northeast.
History
The first station building was designed by architects Adolf Vaclav Kolář (1841-1900), Bogdan prošek and T. Markow ( Bulg Т Марков; . Васил Марков? ) Has been designed. Adolf Vaclav Kolář was employed from 1886 to 1895 with the construction of the station. The construction period was from 1882. Until 1888
The Sofia Central Station (then: Sofia train station ) was opened on August 1, 1888. This first station of Sofia was built for the railway line Zaribrod Sofia Wakarel, the first line of the Bulgarian State Railways ( Balgarski Darschawni Schelesnizi ), which was built entirely of Bulgarian engineers. The opening ceremony of the station a train from London via Paris Coming met, one, who continued racing on Plovdiv and Edirne to Istanbul the following day.
With the opening of the Sofia Central Station on August 1, 1888 ( August 12, 1888 according to the old calendar), this railway track was released on the full length Zaribrod Sofia Wakarel for international traffic. Thus, the continuous rail link from Western Europe to Istanbul was completed. Since then also used the Orient Express this distance.
On the day on which the Sofia Central Station was opened and the railway line Zaribrod Sofia Wakarel was released, the Bulgarian State Railways was established at the same time. Therefore, today in Bulgaria, the "Day of the railwayman " committed on the first day of the week in August.
Bulgaria opened the station and the railway line to Central and Western Europe only ten years after independence in 1887 and continued every effort effort to provide for the further economic development of a transport connection to the countries of Central and Western Europe with its industrial centers. Until then, the usual transport the Danube was, the goods had to be transported on bullock carts to Sofia then the Bulgarian Danube port city of Lom 200 to 300 km.
Back then drove twice a week the international trains of the Simplon Orient Express and the Direct Orient Express in the main station of Sofia.
When choosing the location for the first station of Sofia, the architects had enforced against members of the city council. They wanted to have the station originally directly in the city center, in front of the Central Mineral Bath Sofia, the coastal town and not three kilometers north and then still out of town, on the road to the villages Nadezhda ( Bulg Надежда ) and Wrabniza ( Bulg Връбница ). At the originally intended location on Badplatz then from 1909 to 1911, the Central Market Hall Sofia was built instead.
The station building was built from 1882 to 1888 with the participation of Italian specialists and the entrepreneur Ivan Grosew ( Иван Грозев, who later became Mayor of Sofia ). The building was two storey, 96 m long and 12 m wide. It had a small bell tower on the south facade, which faces the Vitosha Mountains. The east and west wings had a second floor respectively.
The first stationmaster was Josif Karapirow ( Йосиф Карапиров ), he was previously a clerk in the Compagnie des Chemins de fer Orientaux of Baron Hirsch was. 1894 Georg Below mountain was stationmaster. After 11 years of service he was in 1905 promoted to Inspector of the General Directorate of the Bulgarian State Railways. From 1906 to 1907 he was the Director-General. Later was Edgard Karapirow, the son of the first stationmaster, for twelve years stationmaster.
1923, 144 employees of the station. The communication for the purpose of railway safety has been evaluated via a Morse apparatus. This was until 1914 the Belgian Leopold Morse apparatus, and then the Siemens Morseapparat.
When the freight station Podujane was built in Sofia and then the passenger transport was separated from the transport of goods, the station was renamed Sofia in Sofia Central Station in 1948.
Building
Old station building
The old station building had three waiting rooms for travelers: in the waiting room for the first class were red velvet sofas, in second grade, they were covered in green and the third class there were only wooden benches. In the basement of the station building was a bath for railway staff. The station was designed for a city of 100,000 to 150,000 inhabitants. In the station opening 1888 Sofia had around 20,000 inhabitants, in 1910 the population reached the limit of 100,000.
The station was illuminated by gas lanterns. On the platform, next to the main entrance of the station clock, there was a bell, the bell had the following meaning:
On the station square stood a bronze fountain. There were also waiting carriages on their customers.
The first locomotive arrived by rail in Sofia Central Station on November 6, 1887. They bore the name of Katerina and had the task to test the tracks on the railway line Sofia - Wakarel. The locomotives were heated with wood.
The Sofia Central Station has been extended several times and rebuilt.
From 1908 to 1912 the station was expanded under the new Director of the Technical Directorate of the Bulgarian State Railways, Ing Karakaschew. It was expected that the railway station to the extension for the next 50 years would meet the needs of the transport volume requirements. Also, a new engine shed was built next to the railway depot and expands the luggage and parcel stock. Furthermore, additional services and residential buildings were built for the railway workers.
To the west and east of the station (the two exit directions) was 1915, a further extension instead and 1927, a modern signal box was built to the west of the station.
Today's station building
After the construction of the new station building as early as 1971 began, the ground-breaking ceremony was held by the then Transport Minister Grigor Stoichkov on 23 February 1971, the old station building was completely demolished on 14 April 1974 - the western part of the old station building. The current station building was built in 1971-1974 in the style of brutalism, after a design by the architects Olga Stantschewa, Snezha Daskalowa and Milan Dobrew (according to other sources of the Trans project under the supervision of the architect Milko Bechtew ). The new station building was opened on 6 September 1974. It has two underground levels and three aboveground. It was mostly covered with white marble. The roof rests on 36 X-shaped columns. The station has seven covered platforms, 13 tracks and a waiting room with 500 seats.
Outside the station a 34 meter tall statue of "Mother and Child" was built (according to other sources "Sofia" ), by sculptor Welitschki Minekow ( Величко Минеков ).
The main railway station and the square in front of the main train station were overhauled after 2000, the architect was Milan Dobrew. It was a big guyed with steel mesh tent roof structure in the style of the Munich Olympic Stadium, built with an area of 4500 m², on the forecourt of the station. The station interior was also significantly modernized. The cost of the renovation project were 3.5 Mill USD. In 2012, the tent roof structure was dismantled due to safety concerns again.
Since 31 August 2012 is the main station connection to the second underground line of the Sofia metro, between the station Obelja ( Обеля ) on the interchange station Serdica ( Сердика ) to the station James Bourchier ( Джеймс Баучер ) in the district of Lozenets wrong.
Currently a general renovation of the building complex is being prepared that have a modern and contemporary appearance as a target, and provides a significant energy saving. The cost is expected to be 20 million. Euro amount.
Main entrance to the tracks; interestingly, is "Sofia" in the top line, facing the street but in the bottom line
The big switch and waiting hall
"Mother and Child"
Statistics
Around the time of construction of the Sofia railway station ( 1882-1888 ) the population of Sofia grew rapidly: from 20,201 (1 January 1881) to 46,600 (1 January 1893). In the first years after the opening of the railway station used annually about 26,400 travelers the station; In 1895 there were 81,000; 1900 and 1905 already 286,000 then 415,000 annually.
Due to the rapidly rising passenger numbers you considered building another station in Sofia. The first project of this kind was by engineer L. Chaschkow ( Л. Хашнов ) having a terminal station at the intersection of today's ul Rakoski corner Bul. Dondukov envisaged. The project was not accepted. A second project was five years later driven by a commission of specialists and influential figures. Because of lack of space in the city center but it was also discarded. A third Warped project of 1905/ 07 saw before, to leave the old station merely as a marshalling yard and build a new, larger station between the streets and boulevards Eksarch Josif, Iskar, Dondukov and Serdica.
From January to July 2004, 2,323,844 travelers used the station. This corresponds to 11.8% of the railway passengers of Bulgaria in this period. An average of 10,910 travelers use 166 trains ( including 84 incoming and 82 departing ) from Sofia Central Station. The station has 30 ticket offices and five electronic displays.
Long-distance traffic
From Sofia Central Station there are international trains to Belgrade, Bucharest, Istanbul, Moscow and Niš. (see also: International Course book stretches of BDŽ )