Plovdiv Bulgaria with the Trakia motorway (A1) only to the north. It lies on the important national route from Sofia to Burgas via Stara Zagora. First-class roads lead to Sofia to the west, Karlovo to the north, Asenovgrad, Kardzhali to the south, and Stara Zagora and Haskovo to the east. There are intercity buses which link Plovdiv with cities and towns all over the country and many European countries. They are based in three bus stations: South, Rodopi, and North. Railway transport in the city dates back to 1872 when it became a station on the Lyubimets–Belovo railway line. There are
Plovdiv the Kapitan Raycho Street, Forum in Trakiya, Excelsior, and others. Plovdiv has three large shopping centers: the €40 million Mall of Plovdiv (opened 2009) with a shopping area of , 11 cinema halls, and parking for 700 cars; Markovo tepe Mall (opened 2016); and Galeria Mall which is 6 stories high with 127 000 m area, half of which is the parking lot and the rest is shopping area. Due to high demand for business office space, new office and commercial buildings have been built. Several hypermarkets have been built mainly on the outskirts of the city: Metro, Kaufland, Triumf,