For improving performance, the White Paper on Transport sets the development of an efficiency transport system, especially from the point of view of energy consumption, by encouraging the development of high-speed lines. Therefore, since the EU wants that most of the passenger transport on medium distances to be carried out on railways and wishes to finalize the development of a high-speed network by 2050, the construction of lines for this type of transport should be undergone by all member states.
Even though there are still countries which don’t have high-speed lines, under the European strategies, they will have to implement these projects in order to benefit from a complete integration into the European railway network. Like most countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Romania also subscribe to the development of high-speed projects.
In 2011, the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure completed the draft of the Intermodal Transport Strategy introducing the new method of approaching and integrating all transport modes and, currently, together with CFR SA, the mi-nistry is carrying out activities related to the development and operation of the Freight Corridor 7, including the line Dresden – Prague – Vienna – Bratislava – Budapest – Bucharest – Constanţa. It is envisaged that the high-speed line will be developed after 2015 depending on the agreements with involved countries, the authorities launching international initiatives for initiating Budapest – Constanţa HSL discussions, as an extension of the line Paris – Strasbourg – Stuttgart – Vienna – Bratislava – Budapest.
For carrying on the project, the first meeting of the UIC’s Work Group on the elaboration of the Instructions Manual for the implementation of the High-Speed Line was held at the beginning of 2012. CFR SA has also attended the meeting and by the end of 2012 the infrastructure manager has to elaborate a text on UIC’s technical assistance agreement for the HSL.
As the budget for 2012 is drafted, the elaboration of the reference terms for the acquisition of the pre-feasibility study for the high-speed line Budapest – Bucharest – Constanța could be finalized by mid 2012 and, “according to estimates, the traffic speed of high-speed trains is estimated at 250-300 km/h. The route of this line is still not defined, but over the next period, the countries involved will have to make the final conclusion”, declared Adrian Dragomirescu, Head of Programme Planning and Monitoring – CFR SA.
According to CFR SA’s Strategy Manager, Jean Nicolaos, “discussions were held with our partners from Hungary and Austria to continue the route Vienna-Budapest to Bucharest and CFR SA prepares the tender documents for elaborating the pre-feasibi-lity study organised this year for the HSL in Romania. The tender will be preceded by a public consulting on the impact of introducing a high-speed line in Romania. The conclusions of this public debate will be constructively included in the documents for the elaboration of the study”.
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