Central Railway Station, Sofia

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Image:Sofia Central Railway Station - Mihal Orel.jpg

Front view of the renovated Central Railway Station in Sofia

A Bulgarian State Railways Siemens AG Desiro train at the station

The old building of the Central Railway Station completed in 1888

The Central Railway Station (Bulgarian: Централна железопътна гара, Tsentralna zhelezopatna gara) is the main passenger railway station of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, as well as the largest railway station of the country. It is located 1 km north of the city centre after Lavov most, on Marie Louise Boulevard in the immediate proximity of the Central Bus Station Sofia.

The original building of the Sofia Railway Station was opened on 1 August 1888 to serve the Tsaribrod-Sofia-Vakarel line, the first line of the Bulgarian State Railways entirely built by Bulgarian engineers. The building was designed by the architects Antonín Kolář, Václav Prošek and Marinov, and built with the participation of Italian specialists under Bulgarian undertaker Ivan Grozev between 1882 and 1888. It was a one-storey building, 96 m long and 12 m wide, featuring a small clock tower looking towards Vitosha on the façade and a second storey in the western and eastern part. The first station master was Yosif Karapirov. The Sofia Railway Station was renovated and expanded several times. When the Poduyane Railway Station was constructed in 1948, the Sofia Railway Station was renamed the Central Railway Station.

The old building was completely demolished on 15 April 1974, as the construction of a new Brutalist Central Railway Station had begun in 1971. The station was opened on 6 September 1974, having been designed by the Transproekt company under lead architect Milko Bechev. It has two underground and three overground storeys and 365 premises and was built of mainly white marble.

The Central Railway Station and the square in front of it were essentially renovated and reconstructed in the 2000s under Milan Dobrev and Olympic Stadium Munich-style tensile elements of 4,500 m² were added. The interior was also considerably modernized. The entire project cost $3.5 million.^[1]

Between January and July 2004 the Central Railway Station in Sofia had served 2,323,844 passengers, or 11.8% of all in the country's railway network for that period. An average 10,910 people pass through the station daily, as well as an average 166 trains (84 arriving and 82 departing). The station has 30 ticket offices and 5 electronic timetable displays.