The current situation of the Romanian railway infrastructure can be improved by several budget allocations, by prioritising infrastructure projects which are indeed urgent, as the technical and managerial capacities do exist, but they need to operate complementarily. The Romanian Railway Industry Association (AIF) has presented a study proposing the modernisation and the rehabilitation of railway links in Romania’s major cities.
The projects included in the study presented by the Romanian Railway Industry Association (AIF) during Railway Days 2012 Summit, refer to the development of the high-speed railway infrastructure so that large urban centres as well as suburban areas in Romania should benefit from rapid railway connections.
“At national level, a rapid link is created between Timişoara, Cluj, Iaşi, Constanţa, cities with over 350,000 inhabitants, as well as to Bucharest. The main reasons include business and tourism activities, the most common and very important one for all cities being the social reason”, consider AIF representatives.
Firstly, it would be necessary to connect the main cities to Bucharest through high-speed lines – 300 km/h. Therefore, the projects that could link the capital to Timişoara, Iaşi, Cluj and Arad would need EUR 30 Billion, the lines between Bucharest and the other four cities amounting to 1300 km.
At national level, it would also be necessary to connect some important cities to the future high-speed line that will cross Romania from West to East. Thus, for the links Cluj – Oradea – Arad – Timişoara, Galaţi – Brăila – Buzău and Arad – Hungary, the budget estimated by AIF is EUR 7.5 Billion.
To rehabilitate the pan-European Corridors IV and IX, on the Romanian territory, AIF representatives estimated a total necessary amount of EUR 8 Billion.
The projects could be carried out in two phases, indicates AIF in its study. The first one obviously includes Corridor IV, the Northern branch being completed by 2013 on the link Predeal – Brasov – Deva – Arad – Curtici and the Southern branch being completed by 2015 on the link Curtici – Tr. Severin – Craiova – Calafat.
For Corridor IX, AIF considers appropriate the work completion by 2017 on the links Bucharest – Giurgiu (direct line) and Ploieşti – Buzău – Bacău – Paşcani – Iaşi – border. Nevertheless, at the present moment, there is no estimation of Romania’s financial resources as regards the initiation of some rehabilitation works on this corridor, the most recent information of CFR SA announcing a potential beginning of works only after 2020.
The advantages of the modernisation of railway links between Romania’s major cities have been systematised by AIF. The total travel time between two cities can now be compared to the air travel time. The connection to cities is facilitated due to the location of stations compared to downtowns. The offered comfort is higher compared to air transport (internet, larger and comfortable chairs). Both at national and regional level, a rapid connection could be executed to many other important cities, not only to major ones, and in case of the introduction of suburban trains running at regular intervals, the frequency is neatly superior compared to road transport.
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