Septemvri–Dobrinishte narrow-gauge line

The Septemvri–Dobrinishte narrow-gauge line (Bulgarian: теснолинейка Септември – Добринище, tesnolineyka Septemvri–Dobrinishte) is the only operating 760 mm (2 ft 5+15⁄16 in) narrow-gauge line in Bulgaria. It is operated by Bulgarian State Railways (BDŽ). The line is actively used with four passenger trains running the length of the line in each direction per day. The journey takes five hours through the valleys and gorges between the mountain ranges of Rila, Pirin and Rhodopes.

The route leads from Septemvri on the mainline Sofia–Ihtiman–Plovdiv to Dobrinishte, passing towns of Velingrad, Yakoruda, Razlog, Bansko and Dobrinishte, linking the western part of the Upper Thracian Plain with the Western Rhodopes, Rila and Pirin mountains. Due to the characteristics of the route through the mountains, the narrow-gauge line Septemvri–Dobrinishte is also known as the Alpine railway in the Balkans. Avramovo station, situated at 1267 meters above the sea, is the highest station in the Balkans.

Thanks to the proposal for the construction of the railway and the continuing efforts of Stoyan Maltchankoff (1875–1920), a Member of Parliament from the region of Nevrokop, a teacher and a former voivode against the Ottoman empire, a special law about the narrow-gauge railway Sarambey (Septemvri) – Nevrokop (Gotse Delchev) was also adopted in three readings in May 1920 i.e. Law on Construction of the Sarambey–Ladzhene to Nevrokop Narrow Gauge Railway with Branches for the Village of Eli Dere – Tatar Pazardzhik, the Village of Batak and the Chehlyovo State Forest. Several other laws for the development of the Bulgarian railways were adopted the same year, such as the Law for Settling the Situation of the Railway Lines Built for Military Needs During the European War, the Law for the Local and Industrial Railways, etc.

The railway was built in several stages between 1921 and 1945 with total length of 125 km (78 miles) but it reaches only until the town of Dobrinishte. During the communism it was never continued until the town of Nevrokop (Gotse Delchev railway station) as originally planned. The Varvara railway station – Lyahovo railway stop – Pazardzhik branch line, which was closed in 2002, was 16.6 km (10.3 miles) long.

The narrow-gauge railway Sarambey–Nevrokop is very often confused with the TransRhodope narrow-gauge railway which had been proposed in 1913 when Bulgaria had gotten access to the Aegean Sea (which it had later lost) and it was never built despite decades of requests of the local population.