The public transport in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

consists of a comprehensive network of bus, trolleybus, tram and metro lines. It is overseen by the Sofia Urban Mobility Center, a municipal enterprise responsible for route planning, scheduling, fare collection and ticket inspection. It also pays the various transport operators for their service on a per-kilometer basis. Sofia is the only city in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

that operates the four modes of public transport.

Public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

in Sofia is operated by three municipal and one private company — Sofia Public Bus Transport Company JSC operates the majority of bus services; Sofia Public Electrical Transport Company JSC operates the tram and trolleybus networks; Metropoliten JSC operates the Sofia Metro; and the private company MTK Group operates some, mainly suburban, bus services.

Metro

The Sofia Metro is the only metro in

. It began operation on 28 January 1998. , the Sofia Metro consists of four interconnected lines, serving 47 stations, with a total route length of and also being among the top 20 of the most extensive European metro systems, ranking 19th as of 2020. The Metro links the densely populated districts of Lyulin – Mladost (M1 line – Red) and Nadezhda –

Lozenets Lozenets (; also ''Lozenec'' or ''Lozenetz'') may refer to: * Lozenets, Burgas Province, a village in Bulgaria * Lozenets, Dobrich Province, a village in Bulgaria * Lozenets, Yambol Province, a village in Bulgaria * Lozenets, Sofia, a munic ...

(M2 line – Blue), and serves the

Sofia Airport Sofia Vasil Levski Airport () is the main international airport of Bulgaria, located east of the centre of the capital Sofia. In 2019 the airport surpassed 7 million passengers for the first time. The airport serves as the home base for BH Air ...

Tram

Trams began operation on 1 January 1901. As of 2006, the tram system included approximately of narrow and

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

gauge one-way track and operates 15 lines. Most of the track is a narrow gauge (), with standard gauge () used on lines 20, 22 and 23 and accounting for approximately of the system's track length. The average speed of trams in Sofia as of 2020 is 14 km/h.

Rail

Trolleybus

Trolleybus transport was the last form of surface public transport to develop in Sofia, after

buses A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

and

trams A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

. The first Sofia trolleybus line opened on 8 February 1941. It was over long, and connected the city with the

Gorna Banya Gorna Banya () is a neighbourhood in Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. It is one of the city's oldest villa zones. The town is part of Sofia's Ovcha Kupel (Bulgarian: Овча купел) administrative district. It is located in the southw ...

quarter. The line was covered by 2

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

trolleybuses, which were stored on the last stops during the night, due to the lack of depot. In the 1950s and 1960s, massive development of the trolleybus transport in Sofia began. At that time, the construction of new trolleybus routes proceeded especially rapidly, and two depots ("Stochna Gara" and "Nadezhda") were opened, with a total capacity of 160 trolleybuses. In 1951, the first Bulgarian made trolleybuses entered service. In 1987, a new depot, "Iskar", was opened with a capacity of 130 trolleybuses. "Levski" depot was opened in 1994 with a capacity of 60 trolleybuses. As of 2021 three depots are in operation: "Nadezhda", "Iskar" and "Levski". The latter also serves as a storage and overhaul facility. The system presently comprises 10 routes with 193 km route length.

Bus

The public bus transport in Sofia developed relatively late compared to the other types of transport in the city. The first operational line was opened on 20 April 1935. Soon after that six more lines were opened, bringing the total network length to 23 km.History of the bus transport in Sofia
/ref> During the

communist era A communist era is a sustained period of national government by a single party following the philosophy of Marxism–Leninism. Many countries have experienced such a period of communist rule. Current communist states China The Chinese Communist ...

, the bus fleet consisted mainly of Ikarus and Bulgarian-made Chavdar buses. After the political changes in 1989, however, the fleet has gradually been modernised. The system presently comprises 98 routes with a length of 2,380 km.

Intercity Bus Lines

References

External links

Sofia Urban Mobility Centre official website (in English)
{{Urban public transport in Bulgaria Transport in Sofia