site.btaLong Queues of Trucks at Both Danube Bridges between Bulgaria and Romania

Intensive traffic at the Danube Bridge border crossing by Ruse has formed a queue of some 10 km heavy duty trucks waiting to cross the river. The queues in Romania waiting to enter Bulgaria on the other side are nearly 13 km long, border crossing staff said on Thursday.

The lack of alternative routes to Central Europe and Ukraine are the reason for the intensive traffic in recent months, with 1,374 trucks crossing to Romania and 1,233 trucks entering Bulgaria in the last 24 hours.

All services at the border checkpoint are operating at full capacity. The truck queue in the road section between Ruse and Marten, along the main road to Silistra and the city’s international Bulgaria boulevard.

Traffic is also intensive both ways at the Vidin-Calafat Bridge (Northeastern Bulgaria), the deputy chair of the Supervisory Board of the joint Bulgarian-Romanian company operating the facility told BTA. Over 4,000 motor vehicles pass through the border crossing in both directions daily, a trend of recent months that has increased over the summer holidays to the point of over 1,000 cars and the same number of trucks in the last 24 hours. The situation on Romanian territory is the same, as nearly 1,300 trucks have entered Bulgaria, Monev added.

Just after noon on Thursday, the queue of vehicles waiting to cross over at Vidin was 10 km long. This entails a wait of 16 to 18 hours before crossing the bridge for just 5 minutes. The checks at the crossing itself take about ten minutes.