Bucharest metro company heads sacked after Friday morning incident at the subway

Romanian transport minister Felix Stroe decided to dismiss the general manager and the operating director of Bucharest subway operator Metrorex after an incident on Friday morning that disrupted the trains’ normal schedule and affected the passengers. Both general manager Marin Aldea and operating director Liviu Daniel Dinu said on Friday morning that they hadn’t been officially informed about the transport minister’s decision to dismiss them, reports News.ro. Metrorex is controlled by the Transport Ministry. However, the transport minister can't directly dismiss the company's general manager, reports local Stirileprotv.ro. Only the Board of Directors can take such a decision, according to the ordinance on the corporate governance of public enterprises, as outlined in the updated status of Metrorex. On Friday morning at around 05:24, on the Eroilor-Politehnica section of the M3 line, an infiltration drainage gully fell from the tunnel ceiling on the third rail, which is responsible for transmitting the voltage, and caused a short circuit, Metrorex announced in a statement. Thus, the train running on this line was stopped and the passengers were evacuated. The incident also affected the trains’ schedule blocking traffic on the Eroilor - Politehnica segment for more than two hours. The problem was solved at around 08:00. Transport minister Felix Stroe said after the incident that there are many things that are going wrong at Metrorex, including the lack of discipline and routine. He also said that the authorities would carry out a control at Metrorex, checking to see if the company actually does the maintenance, considering that it has enough money for such work. Moreover, the minister went even further and said that a criminal investigation would be opened if necessary. Last week, the minister dismissed Marius Chiper, the general manager of the state-owned railways company CFR, after his train registered a delay of 50 minutes. However, it’s not unusual for the trains run by state-owned company CFR to register delays. One of the main reasons is the poor condition of the infrastructure. Transport minister Felix Stroe also dismissed Mihai Candea, the head of Gara de Nord train station on Monday, October 23. The director of the Bucharest Railways Regional Department, Laurentiu Maraloi, was also released from his post. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com