“A financing of less than 10% of the amount necessary for Romania’s railway infrastructure rehabilitation projects has been accessed in the past five years. 60% of the subsystems are due for rehabilitation works and this situation is the cause of repeated speed restrictions and of a less attractive railway transport. According to a EIB analysis, almost 10,000 km of railways are due for rehabilitation works because of the underfinancing, the uncertainty of an annual budget, domestic losses of facilities for infrastructure renewal (such as the machines of the railway infrastructure national company) and, at national level, because of the entrepreneurs and of their efforts redirected to other transport modes or countries”, declared Mihai Frumosu, Senior Transport Expert – the European Investment Bank during the Railway Days Summit, organised by Club Feroviar and the Romanian Railway Industry Association – AIF, in Bucharest.
The analysis shows that necessary investments for infrastructure rehabilitation amount to EUR 5.8 billion, an amount that would sustain the rehabilitation of 660.5 km of railways/year for a programming period of 15 years. Consequently, an investment of EUR 386 million a year is necessary to rehabilitate the infrastructure.
Mihai Frumosu said that, to increase the quality of the infrastructure faster, rehabilitation works could lead to meeting objectives compared to modernisation projects. “Compared with the modernisation, infrastructure rehabilitation does not pose major design and environment challenges, the preparation of projects could be done much more rapidly and cheaper, expropriations are not necessary, nor archaeological researches. Also, by using the latest technologies, the rehabilitation speed is higher than the realignment of railways and advantages also include a faster pace in implementing the projects and the added financial value. According to our analyses, compared with modernisation, the rehabilitation is 40% faster and cheaper”, explained Frumosu.
In Romania, for the transport segment, EIB granted a EUR 1 billion financing. The bank also supports the modernisation of the railway network, including Corridor IV, as well as the modernisation of the metro network and the construction of new lines – Metro Line 5. Also, the bank provides consultancy services for CFR SA, the Romanian Railway Reform Authority, as well as Metrorex, through PASSA (Project Advisory Support Service Agreement).
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