Romanian rail car manufacturer will operate its own luxury train on Bucharest-Arad route

Romanian rail car manufacturer Astra Vagoane Calatori Arad recently launched a new train model, called Transcarpatic, that will start running on the Arad – Bucharest route by January 15. The company will operate the train through a firm called Astra Trans Carpatic, thus making its entry on the railway passenger transport segment, according to the group's owner, Romanian entrepreneur Valer Blidar, reports local Economica.net. The fare on the new train won't be higher than the one charged by the state passenger carrier CFR Calatori, according to Blidar. However, he claims that the conditions will be better than those offered by his competitors. The sleeping cars of the new train come with showers and a maximum of four seats and the passengers will be offered sandwiches. Astra Vagoane Calatori Arad, which is one of the biggest rolling stock producer in Romania, plans to operate the new train on several other routes, including international ones. Some of the planned routes are Timisoara - Baia Mare and Timisoara – Vienna. Astra Vagoane manufactures several types of passenger train cars, freight train cars as well as a tram model, in a partnership with Siemens. The company had a turnover of EUR 22 million in 2015, according to data from the Finance Ministry. Another Romania-made train running on a national route is the electric train Hyperion, manufactured in Craiova. The train is run by private operator Softrans. Other private railway passenger transport operators in Romania are Regiotrans and Transferoviar. editor@romania-insider.com (Photo source: Mix Studio Facebook Page)