The Sofia Central Railway Station ( bg, Централна железопътна гара София, translit=Tsentralna zhelezopatna gara Sofiya) is the main passenger railway station of

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, the capital of

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

, as well as the largest railway station in 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 Central Bus Station Sofia ( bg, Централна автогара София, Tsentralna avtogara Sofiya; abbreviated as CBS) is the main bus station of Sofia, Bulgaria. Its building was opened in 2004 and covers an area of , of which the waiting ...

. It was completely renovated in 2016.

History

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 The Bulgarian State Railways ( bg, Български държавни железници, translit=Balgarski darzhavni zheleznitsi, abbreviated as БДЖ, BDZ or BDŽ) are Bulgaria's state railway company and the largest railway carrier in the co ...

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 Vitosha ( bg, Витоша ), the ancient ''Scomius'' or ''Scombrus'', is a mountain massif, on the outskirts of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Vitosha is one of the symbols of Sofia and the closest site for hiking, alpinism and skiing. Conven ...

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. 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.

Destinations

The following destinations can be reached directly from Sofia Railway Station: * Belgrade *

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

Transport links

Bus

Regional and international bus services are provided at

, which lies next to Sofia Central Station.

Public transport

* Tramway service: lines 1, 3, 6, 7, 12 * Bus service: lines 60, 74, 77, 78, 82, 85, 101, 213, 214, 285, 305, 404, 413

Metro

Central Railway Metro Station of

Sofia Metro The Sofia Metro ( bg, Софийски метрополитен, translit=Sofijski Metropoliten, also colloquially called ) is the rapid transit network servicing the Bulgarian capital city Sofia. It began operation on 28 January 1998. , the Sofi ...

(line 2) lies just next to Sofia Central Station.

Taxi

Parking

Airport

Renovations

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 Olympiastadion () is a stadium located in Munich, Germany. Situated at the heart of the '' Olympiapark München'' in northern Munich, the stadium was the main venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics. The original capacity was maximally and officiall ...

-style

tensile In physics, tension is described as the pulling force transmitted axially by the means of a string, a rope, chain, or similar object, or by each end of a rod, truss member, or similar three-dimensional object; tension might also be described as ...

elements of 4,500 m² were added. The interior was also considerably modernized. The entire project cost US$3.5 million.
/sup> On 22 August 2013 a 56 million Bulgarian lev, leva (~28.6 million euro) renovation contract was signed. The renovation was completed in 2016.