en.Wedoany.com Reported - Bulgaria's Ministry of Transport and Communications has launched a second competitive grant call for intermodal transport operators, with a total amount of €10,652,770 in non-repayable funding, financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The funds are disbursed under the Transport Connectivity 2021–2027 programme and are intended for the modernization and expansion of existing rail, river, maritime, logistics, and freight forwarding terminals in five less-developed regions: Northwest, North Central, Northeast, Southeast, and South Central. The Ministry has not yet announced the application deadline or the number of projects to be funded.
Individual projects may apply for support ranging from €766,937 to over €2 million from the total amount. Eligible applicants are operators of rail, river, maritime, logistics, and freight forwarding terminals in the aforementioned five regions. Funds may be used for the acquisition of intermodal-specific equipment, deployment of specialized IT solutions, construction or renovation of rail and road infrastructure, and the development of cargo handling platforms. Applications must be submitted online via the electronic application module of the ISUN information system, with projects selected through a competitive evaluation process.
In the context of regional freight and investment trends, total rail freight volume from China to the EU fell by 18% year-on-year in 2025, but volumes on the Central Corridor via Bulgaria grew by 14% (source: Upply, 2025). During the same period, rail freight volume between Germany and China declined by 25% to 25,418 TEUs. Germany's 2026 rail investment plan stands at €18.7 billion, up from the previous €9.2 billion, and is more than 1,700 times larger than Bulgaria's €10.65 million intermodal terminal call (source: Reuters, 2025); its infrastructure fund has also allocated €2.5 billion in 2026 for motorway bridge renovations. Spain's national railway company (Renfe) achieved a net profit of over €50 million in 2025, its first profitable year since 2019, although its freight operations remain loss-making (source: Railmarket, 2025).
The EU Recovery Fund is extending the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) by 707 kilometres (by Q2 2026) and advancing the modernization of the Sofia–Plovdiv corridor (source: Xpert.digital, 2025). The total budget of Bulgaria's first intermodal funding procedure was not disclosed in the Ministry's announcement, making it impossible to calculate the year-on-year change for the second call.
