“We all know that the absorption of European funds is blocked, but step by step we are trying to make everything we can so that this March we could unblock the attraction of European funds. Also, we plan that by the end of the year we could resume the tenders launched by CFR SA among which that on the Km 614 – Simeria section (part of the pan-European Corridor IV) which is currently suspended”, declared Magdalena Grigore, Secretary of State within the Romanian Ministry of Transport at the Railway Pro Technology and Services Forum, organised by Club Feroviar at Poiana Brașov, on 25-27 February.
Another priority underlined by the representative of the ministry of transport is the implementation of the General Transport Master Plan which will be soon presented to the European Commission. The prioritisation of railway transport projects included in the General Transport Master Plan is another direction to be developed. Magdalena Grigore named projects such as the rehabilitation of Grădiștea Bridge, on Bucharest-Giurgiu route, “a project whose implementation suffers no delay”. Another important project for this year, the secretary of state believes, is the electrification of
Craiova-Calafat railway, a railway which ensures direct railway connection to Bulgaria.
Currently, the Ministry of Transport is working at a new methodology of granting the subsidy for railway passenger transport and this methodology could be available by the end of March. According to this new methodology, there will be clearer rules and new criteria for granting the subsidy, such as the compatibility of ticketing for passengers or percentages granted for the number of passengers/km, train/km. Referring to the privatisation of CFR Marfă, the secretary of state said that “it was a priority of IMF and we are behind the IMF schedule. We have expressed our point of view that is to try and maintain CFR Marfă on operational profit and then resume a schedule for privatisation”.
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