The transport ministers of Bulgaria and North Macedonia signed the long awaited agreement to build a joint cross-border railway tunnel, with the contract signed in English at the insistence of authorities in Skopje.
Transport Corridor 8, envisioned to link the Black Sea with the Adriatic through Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Albania, promises economic growth and regional integration. Yet, decades after its conception, the project remains mired in logistical, political, and geopolitical complexities.
The missing link to complete NATO’s logistical routes – connecting member states Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Greece, has been the Sofia–Skopje railway, and more specifically a 2-km tunnel.
The modernisation and construction of the new sections of the Sofia–Skopje railway, stretching approximately 250 kilometres, will cost over €2 billion.
The agreement was signed by Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadzhov and his counterpart from North Macedonia, Aleksandar Nikolovski. The ceremony took place in the presence of EU and NATO ambassadors, who travelled to Gyueshevo aboard the historic Bulgarian “Crown Express” – a train dating back to the era of Bulgaria’s last monarch, Tsar Boris III, together with the Bulgarian government delegation.
Deputy Prime Minister Karadzhov noted that the day “brings back to life a century-old idea – the railway link between Sofia and Skopje,” whose first plans date as far back as 1897.
The use of the “royal train” may well symbolise the forgotten railway links across the region, but the historical references to the reign of Tsar Boris III (1918–1943) were certainly uncomfortable for the North Macedonian delegation, as both Vardar and Aegean Macedonia were under Bulgarian administration between 1941 and 1944.
Bulgarian deputy PM recalled that the railway line reached Gyueshevo as early as 1942, but construction was halted due to wars and political divisions. “Today, Bulgaria and North Macedonia bear the responsibility to complete what was once begun,” he said.
The railway segment of Corridor 8 spans around 1,350 kilometres, 747 of which lie within Bulgaria. The only section left to be built on Bulgarian territory is the final 2.4-kilometre stretch between Gyueshevo and Deve Bair at the border.
The modernisation of the Sofia–Gyueshevo line, approximately 150 km long, will cost over €1.2 billion, while the North Macedonian side requires an additional €800 million. The signing of the cross-border tunnel agreement at Deve Bair had been delayed for more than a year due to ongoing disputes between Sofia and Skopje.
North Macedonian officials repeatedly accused Bulgaria of delaying work on Corridor 8, while the Bulgarian government insisted that the project was being held up on the Macedonian side. One of the key sticking points was the agreement on joint management of the cross-border tunnel, which proved particularly difficult to resolve.
On Thursday, EU and NATO ambassadors also joined the “royal train” on the Kyustendil–Gyueshevo line to attend the signing ceremony of the long-awaited deal between Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Funding for the border sections of Corridor VIII will come from the EU’s “Transport Connectivity” programme and national budgets.
According to North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Aleksandar Nikolovski, construction of the railway line from Kumanovo to Deve Bair, on the Bulgarian border, will cost around €810 million, of which €200 million will be provided by the EU. He added that work is currently under way on three separate sections.
The reconstruction of the 34-km section from Beljakovce to Kriva Palanka, worth €155 million, is ongoing and expected to be completed by October 2026, Nikolovski said. The most challenging part of the railway on the North Macedonian side is the 21-km mountainous stretch from Kriva Palanka to the Bulgarian border, with an estimated cost of €455 million. A tender for selecting the contractor is expected to be announced in December.
The construction of the cross-border tunnel between the two countries is a key component of the “Western Balkans–Eastern Mediterranean” transport corridor and the strategic Corridor VIII. Its completion will provide the missing rail connection between Bulgaria and North Macedonia and improve transport links between the Black Sea and the Adriatic.
“In relations between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, there has always been a lot of emotion – not always positive,” Minister Karadzhov remarked, adding that the east–west rail axis is part of Southeastern Europe’s transport security and NATO’s connectivity along its southeastern flank.
Gyueshevo station, Bulgaria’s westernmost and highest railway station at 933 metres above sea level, was described by Karadzhov as “a place from which Bulgaria looks westward – with hope, but also with expectation.”
Media in Skopje paid little attention to the signing of the agreement, in contrast to the excitement it generated within the diplomatic corps in Sofia.
A heavy past
North Macedonia’s Aleksandar Nikoloski is still remembered in Bulgaria for the brutal insult he hurled a year ago, when he called Bulgarians “uncivilised” and “miserable” live on Alfa TV. He has also been a fierce opponent of Corridor 8.
BGNES reporter Dimitar Ruskov asked Nikoloski what had made him change his mind about the strategic route.
Nikoloski blamed the journalists for trying to manufacture a political scandal.
“Both last year and this year we spoke only about engineering – not political – problems with the project. What you and your colleagues tried to turn into a political problem, fortunately you failed to do, and that’s exactly why we are here today. I think I’ve answered enough.”