Minister to dismiss Romanian railway company manager after two trains derail

Romania’s transport minister Razvan Cuc said that he plans to dismiss the head of the passenger railway company CFR Calatori, Leon Barbulescu, after two trains derailed on March 3.

Barbulescu told journalists that such cases did not fall into his responsibility, local G4media.ro reported.

The two trains derailed near Arad and Brasov, but no victims were reported. Barbulescu claimed that in both cases there were problems with the railway infrastructure and the company responsible for this is CFR SA. He argued that there is no reason for him to resign since the company has performed well since his appointment.

"When I was appointed, 50 locomotives were failing to operate every day, and now there are only 5," he said, adding that there was no special incident during the summer and winter periods when the passenger trains are particularly under pressure.