Kilometer-long queues and a nervous wait greet anyone who has decided to cross the Bulgarian-Turkish border on the festive September 6th in a temperature of 37 degrees in the shade. Entering Bulgaria from our southern neighbor takes up to 3 hours. The situation at the "Kapitan Andreevo" border checkpoint is the most critical.
The intense traffic is the result of a combination of Bulgarian tourists returning from vacation at the end of the long weekend for the Day of Reunification, who in turn encounter the traditional for the end of summer huge flow of Turkish guest workers traveling back to Western Europe.
According to data from travelers and the General Directorate of the "Border Police" (GDGP), the queues for entering the country with cars start well before the Turkish checkpoint “Kapıkule“. Processing documents and crossing both borders takes between two and three hours at peak times of the day. Although employees are working at full capacity and all available routes are open, the physical volume of cars exceeds the permeability of the infrastructure. The alternative route through the “Lesovo“ border checkpoint also takes part of the load, but serious delays are reported there too.
The situation on the other borders of the country remains dynamic.
“Border Police“ reports the following data:
Border with Turkey: In addition to the huge concentration of cars at the entrance to Bulgaria, at the “Kapitan Andreevo“ border checkpoint and the “Lesovo“ border checkpoint Extremely heavy traffic is also reported at the exit for heavy goods vehicles (trucks).
The border with Serbia: The traffic at the "Kalotina" border checkpoint is intense, but the load is mainly at the exit from the country for passenger cars, as many Bulgarians travel to the neighboring country or Central Europe.
The border with Romania: The main problem on our northern border remains nature. Due to the critically low level of the Danube River, the ferry connections serving the border crossings Oryahovo – Beket and Svishtov – Zimnich, have been temporarily suspended. Traffic is mainly redirected to the bridges near Ruse and Vidin.
The border with Greece: Traffic through the "Kulata", "Ilinden", "Makaza" checkpoints and “Kapitan Petko Voivoda“ is proceeding normally. The passage of cars and buses to and from our southern neighbor is carried out without long waits.
The border with North Macedonia: Traffic is normal and calm at all checkpoints.
The traffic analysis for the past seven days categorically assigns the “Kapitan Andreevo“ border checkpoint the status of the busiest border checkpoint not only in Bulgaria, but also in all of Eastern Europe.
During the last week of August and the first of September, the checkpoint is literally suffocating with vehicles, regularly reporting the passage of over 10,000 cars per day. Statistics show that the traffic there does not drop even during the night hours, writes BGNES.
The reason for this record traffic is the peak of workers returning to Germany and Austria, whose vacations end with the start of the school year in the West. Despite preliminary meetings between the Bulgarian and Turkish authorities to ease summer traffic and the emergency measures introduced, the capacity of the border has reached its absolute limit in the last seven days, turning the point into a real “stop” for travelers.