Situated in the central part of North Bulgaria, the Municipality, whose administrative centre is Gorna Oryahovitsa, includes 14 settlements (12 villages and two towns) and has a population of 38,764.
A cultural and historic centre, Gorna Oryahovitsa became connected with surrounding cities in 1880, following the construction of a stone bridge, build by Alexander Battenberg. Today, Gorna Oryahovitsa is a national crossroads, and one of the most important transport centres in the country. Two first-class routes pass nearby, as well as the E-85 International Road.
The railway station, founded in 1899, is one of the largest railway junctions of national importance. Gorna Oryahovitsa is the third largest railway junction in the country, servicing freight and passenger flows from much of Bulgaria. Three international railway lines cross the area and connections with three more international lines are realized. The annual inter-zone demand of transport services is estimated at 5.1 million attracted and generated cargos and 6 million attracted and generated passengers.
Gorna Oryahovitsa has also daily buses to the towns of Sofia, Veliko Tyrnovo, Liaskovets, Svishtov, Elena, Sliven, Pavlikeni and Bourgas.
Currently, within the city, the Municipality operates 13 public transport scheduled bus lines run with a rather low average occupancy rate. The average daily number of buses running through the downtown area is 270, all with conventional diesel engines. Bus and car emissions are particularly high in some parts of the town.
In the city, there is a lack of parking policy and facilities, which exasperates problems in the downtown area. Here local and transit freight traffic passes through causing traffic problems, air and noise. The existing traffic organisation scheme can’t cope with the increased car and truck traffic flows
Gorna Oryahovitsa is the first Bulgarian town to participate in CIVITAS initiative. The city's strategy will be to positively influence it's population’s behavior, rather than attempting to remedy in a short timethe difficult transport situation. Within CIVITAS - RENAISSANCE, Gorna Oryahovitsa is a “learning” city and its main objectives are to:
- Learn from other cities experience
- Prepare a strategic document and plan
- Perform small tests on the identified within the plan long-term actions
- Disseminate the experience gained among other Bulgarian and European cities.
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