site.btaVehicle No. 8,000,000 Crosses New Europe Bridge

Motor vehicle no. 8 million, a MAN truck driven by Bulgarian national Simeon Georgiev who was entering this country, crossed the New Europe Bridge over the Danube River early Friday. This was reported by Lyudmil Lyubenov, CEO of the Bulgarian-Romanian company Danube Bridge Vidin – Calafat.

The bridge connecting the cities of Vidin, Bulgaria, and Calafat, Romania, was opened back in 2013. In 2021 traffic over it was 20% higher compared to the previous year. The first five months of 2022 saw another increase of 17% compared to the same period last year, Lyubenov said. More than 1.15 million motor vehicles crossed the bridge in 2021, 60% or 670,000 of which were trucks. On average, the Vidin-Calafat border control checkpoint processed more than 3,000 vehicles daily.

The spike in traffic is due to the war in Ukraine, which significantly limits consignment via the Black Sea. Most goods that travel from Asia to Western Europe go through Turkey and Bulgaria, which results in the border control checkpoints at Vidin and Ruse being particularly busy.

The Vidin – Calafat checkpoint works 24/7 with six lanes open. Depending on the situation, one of them may be processing cars, while the remaining five are dedicated to trucks only and even they are not enough, Lyubenov said.

Early Friday again saw queues on both sides of the border. The queue on the Bulgarian side was more than 15 km long, reaching as far as the ring road around Vidin.