Sofia’s Urban Environment – News in Brief
The green tram rails in the area of Ruski Pametnik Square will be extended to Macedonia Square and a new small city park will be constructed along the stretch. The alley will be enriched with 467 new trees and 3720 square meters of green areas, recreation areas and cross-connections for crossings of the tramway. A convenient pedestrian and bicycle traffic will be provided and the currently available 163 parking spaces, as well as the local lanes will be preserved. Sofia Municipality is working on the project in cooperation with the French studio “Wilmotte Architects“.
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Sofia Municipality has renewed the fleet of the social transport service for people with disabilities with 13 new Renault buses. Seven of them are already operational, and gradually the Municipality with put another 8 into operation. The vehicles meet the Euro 6 standard and are equipped with wheelchair lifts, assistant seats and air-conditioners. The working hours for the service are extended from 6 am to 11 pm, as the transport should be requested 12 hours in advance. The Social Services Directorate of Sofia Municipality serves between 600-700 requests a month for transportation of people with disabilities to workplaces, health facilities, etc.
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A new buffer parking lot with 193 parking spaces will be opened in August this year at Vasil Levski Stadium metro station, the Sofia Urban Mobility Center announced. The “Park and Travel” service will also offer a parking lot. The service is a combination of the use of a private vehicle to the buffer parking lot with free parking when using the metro.
Another two parking lots are scheduled to be repaired this year – the underground parking lot to the Central Railway Station, which has 73 parking spaces, and an above-ground parking lot in Nadezhda district.
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As of May 2019 another airline will operate flights from Sofia to Tel Aviv. Ryanair will launch round trip flights twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays. Currently, Wizz Air also offers flights to the Israeli city. Furthermore, it carries passengers to another popular destination in Israel, the resort town of Eilat. By November 2018 Bulgaria was visited by some 236 000 Israeli tourists and Bulgarians who traveled to Israel totaled 19 000, according to preliminary NSI data.
