Transport Minister Peter Moutafchiev and his team, the management of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) and the National Company for Railway Infrastructure, and MPs from the constituencies of Pleven, Shoumen, Dobrich and Veliko Turnovo travelled by train to Cherven Bryag, Pleven Region, on Monday, BTA reports.

They discussed problems of railway transport and necessary legislative changes. The initiative came from the "24 Chassa" daily, bTV and Darik Radio in connection with the February 28 fire on the Sofia-Kardam train, which killed nine people.

A complete renovation of the Bulgarian railways will cost 500 million leva annually over a period of five years, Transport Minister Moutafchiev said in Cherven Bryag.

A program for the stabilization of the Bulgarian railways until 2017 has been approved. A 120 million leva bond loan has been received for the start of the program, Moutafchiev said. The subsidy for BDZ has been increased 40 per cent from earlier years, reaching 100 million leva last year.

One of the ideas which were discussed for the renovation of the railways was to earmark 500 million leva from the annual national budget surplus in the next five years in order to ensure an average train speed of 130 km/h. Currently, the average speed is 87 km/h.