DanielP
Traveller
2 comments
Posted 7 years ago
In the newly published timetable from the Bulgarian state railways for the trains "Balkan" and "Bosfor" to and from Sofia and Bucharest to Istanbul, it is stated that from 1. april 2017 it will again run sleeper and couchette cars the whole way and will not be affected by the past years construction works in Bulgaria and Turkey with change to replacement buses in the middle of the night.
Is it any one that can confirm this information? Will the train actually running as described from 1.april 2017?
Here you can see the timetables for the Bosfor and the Balkan, if you look at the bottom of the page for wich kind of coaches that is attached to the train, you can see sleeper and couchettes attached for the whole way:
http://p.bdz.bg/4/6/461-465-493-492-464-460-7115.pdf
http://p.bdz.bg/4/9/492-493-7113.pdf
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi Daniel,
I already updated the blog post about this topic: [ux]https://rail.cc/blog/bucharest-sofia-istanbul-train/[/ux] - as you can read there, TCDD (Turkish Railways) have planned to continue with the replacement bus service between Kapikule and Istanbul (Sirkeci) until June.
The construction works in Bulgaria have finished (at least on the part from Plovdiv to Svilengrad) and also in Turkey a day train already is running from Kapikule to Istanbul (Halkali). However we can\\\'t really predict when the night trains will run again - I\\\'d not bet on the trains running again on April 1. ;)
Flo 8)
DanielP
Traveller
2 comments
Hi Flo,
As i wrote in the other topic, I think it is better to wait and see what happens after 1.april if the train is running or not.
I am not interrested in travelling by replacement bus in the middle of the night, so I wait and see.
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
The only alternative would be to go by train to Svilengrad, then cross the border by bus/minbus/hitchhike/taxi and go to Kapikule or better Edirne (Edirne is quite a beautiful city). From there you can take the day train to Istanbul (Halkali).