Bulgaria could apply for a lot of EU money for its railways, but for now it has neither the know-how nor any projects ready, Boryana Tazgetarska, communications manager for a project under Europe's Rail, told BNT.

Europe's Rail is a European partnership for rail research and innovation, and Bulgaria is a member. The idea is that one day people will cross the whole of Europe on a single train, with no changes and no barriers between national railways — and no separate ticket for each country.

"Europe's Rail as a project is about standardising all countries so that one day we can travel freely across all of Europe on the same train," Tazgetarska said.

The project was shown in Brussels at the European connectivity days. On screen it looks like a computer model. It is a digital copy of real rail infrastructure, known as a digital twin. The device weighs 400kg and reproduces a point machine — the mechanism that moves the rails where a track splits.

The command is sent from Brussels and the points move at the same moment at Dětenice station in the Czech Republic, not far from Prague. "We are connected directly to a station in the Czech Republic. When we trigger it here, the rails at the station in the Czech Republic move in real time," she told BNT.

The aim is for Europe's railways to be more joined up and for the systems of different countries to share data with each other.

Tazgetarska said the goal is for Bulgaria to move up the list of countries that take up EU funding for railways. In her view, Bulgaria's railways are in very poor shape.

Her team includes specialists from India, Africa, Germany and England. It is already looking for Bulgarian partners to work with, so that the country can join the project.