Romanian Transport Ministry plans to 'complete' high speed railway project with Chinese partners this year

The Ministry of Transport and the Chinese partners could complete this year the project for the Romanian section of the high speed railway linking Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and the Romanian seaside city Constanta, and start the actual construction, according to Romanian transport minister Ramona Manescu. “We are talking with Chinese partners about the Vienna-Budapest-Bucharest-Constanta high speed train. We can do the section from the border to Constanta without European funds. This year we hope to at least complete the project under which we could start the actual construction of the railway,” said the minister, quoted by local news agency Agerpres. “By the end of 2014-2020 timeframe, we want to have high speed trains in Romania, freight trains to travel with 120 km per hour, passenger trains with 160 km per hour, while the high speed train to run with 200 km per hour between the border and Constanta,” added Manescu. According to the minister, the Romanian authorities focused more on road transport in the previous years, but now, one of the main objectives of the Ministry of Transport is to transfer a big part of both freight and passenger transport from road routes to railways, which should be cheaper. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com