Questions about Bulgarian railways & ticketing

[SandsofEss]

Is there anybody on the forum familiar with ticketing on Bulgarian railways please?

I will be travelling around Bulgaria in April with my family. We will be taking the train from Ruse to Veliko Tarnovo, Veliko Tarnovo to Varna, from Varna to Sofia (by sleeper train), and finally from Sofia to Istanbul (again by sleeper).

We are a group of two adults and three children aged 12, 10 & 7. I am keen to pre-book the longer journeys if possible.

I have some questions about booking tickets. I have contacted the international booking office of BDZ, but have not had a response. I’ve put the questions I have below. If anybody is able to answer any of them I’d be very grateful.

Questions about discounts

1. Are foreign nationals entitled to buy the ‘Child’ or ‘Family’ passes that cost 1 lev?
   1. If so, I assume the ‘Family’ pass would be the best option for our group?
   2. Can I buy tickets online at the discount pass rate, before I am in possession of the pass, so long as I buy the pass upon arrival in Bulgaria before travelling?
2. If we are not entitled to use the discount passes, I see there is a 15% discount offered to small groups of 3 – 6 passengers. It says that two children aged 7 to 10 years are considered as one passenger. Does this mean that the 15% discount is applied on top of the existing 50% discount for children, provided the group consists of at least 3 ‘full’ passengers?

Questions about Bulgarian domestic sleeper trains

• It appears the sleeper trains on the Varna – Sofia route operate with compartments that can be configured as 1, 2 or 3 berth. Will we be able to purchase one compartment with 2 berths & one with 3 berths adjacent to one another?
• Do the compartments on this train feature interconnecting doors?
• Does booking on this train open 60 days ahead? An attempted dummy booking shows tickets available up until the end of February.

Questions about the Sofia to Halkali (Istanbul) sleeper train

• I understand this train only operates with 1 or 2-berth sleeper compartments, or couchettes. Can we buy two 2-berth sleeper compartments, plus one place in a couchette, but then have two of our children share a sleeper berth rather than use the couchette place? (So that our family just occupies two 2-berth compartments, but is fully ticketed for the train).
• Do the compartments on this train feature interconnecting doors?
• I understand we can’t buy tickets for this train online, but have been put in touch with Andy Brabin at Discover by Rail to make the purchase.

 

[StephenHunter]

Have you looked on Seat61.com? That's a great site to start with.

 

[SandsofEss]

Have you looked on Seat61.com? That's a great site to start with.

I have, thanks Stephen. It's my go-to starting point for trip planning - these are just questions that it can't answer.

 

[StephenHunter]

I have, thanks Stephen. It's my go-to starting point for trip planning - these are just questions that it can't answer.

Email Mark Smith directly. He's very good at responding.

 

[SandsofEss]

Email Mark Smith directly. He's very good at responding.

Thanks. I'll give that a try and see if he can help.

 

[SandsofEss]

Having completed my trip, I thought I'd post answers here in case useful to anybody else searching threads in future:

Are foreign nationals entitled to buy the ‘Child’ or ‘Family’ passes that cost 1 lev?

Yes, foreign nationals can buy the 'Child' pass. I couldn't find anybody who knew anything about the Family pass mentioned on the website.

Can I buy tickets online at the discount pass rate, before I am in possession of the pass, so long as I buy the pass upon arrival in Bulgaria before travelling?

You cannot buy tickets in advance before you are in possession of the discount pass.

If we are not entitled to use the discount passes, I see there is a 15% discount offered to small groups of 3 – 6 passengers. It says that two children aged 7 to 10 years are considered as one passenger. Does this mean that the 15% discount is applied on top of the existing 50% discount for children, provided the group consists of at least 3 ‘full’ passengers?

You can only obtain this discount at the ticket office - not on tickets purchased online in advance.

It appears the sleeper trains on the Varna – Sofia route operate with compartments that can be configured as 1, 2 or 3 berth. Will we be able to purchase one compartment with 2 berths & one with 3 berths adjacent to one another?

With the caveat that BDZ operates different types of sleeping stock - yes, the compartments can be configured as 1, 2 or 3 on demand.

Do the compartments on this train feature interconnecting doors?

No.

Does booking on this train open 60 days ahead? An attempted dummy booking shows tickets available up until the end of February.

In practice I found most domestic booking opened 30 days ahead. However, for two of the trains I intended to book, no places were shown. A quick email to [email protected] confirmed that this was a bug, which was fixed about two weeks before travel so I was able to book.

I understand this train (Sofia-Halkali sleeper) only operates with 1 or 2-berth sleeper compartments, or couchettes. Can we buy two 2-berth sleeper compartments, plus one place in a couchette, but then have two of our children share a sleeper berth rather than use the couchette place? (So that our family just occupies two 2-berth compartments, but is fully ticketed for the train).

Yes, you can do this, and we had no problems getting the five of us in two sleeper compartments. BDZ has temporarily added a Bulgarian couchette car to the consist, that means 6-berth couchettes may be available for you.

I understand we can’t buy tickets for this train online, but have been put in touch with Andy Brabin at Discover by Rail to make the purchase.

It's a big faff that you can only buy tickets for this train in person.

In the end, we were helped by someone from BDZ who blocked out the compartments we needed so we could finish the booking in person, in confidence that there would be space for us. I got the impression this was somebody doing us a favour though. You could try the local travel agent Wasteels. They were flexible and responsive and willing to book tickets in-person for a €20 fee, which felt very reasonable.