Trains in Romania travel at an average of 44 km/h due to a lack of investments, union says

Railway unions in Romania criticized the government’s plans to cut costs for the national railway operator, CFR, in a press release published on Wednesday, July 23. They say that low investments in rail infrastructure have lowered the average speed at which passenger trains travel to 44 km/h, while freight trains do not exceed 17 km/h.

Representatives of the National Railway Federation argue that “investments have never matched the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of so-called plans for the revival of railway activity.”

“There has never been enough money for the purchase of new rolling stock, locomotives, and carriages. Sufficient amounts have never been allocated for development, maintenance, and compensation,” the unionists also stated.

According to them, in Romania, the compensation the state pays to the railway is one of the lowest in the entire European area, only EUR 42/km, while in Germany, the compensation is EUR 239/km, in Spain EUR 98/km, in Italy EUR 131/km, in France EUR 298/km, in Hungary EUR 58/km, and in Austria EUR 202/km.

“The current government will turn rail transport in Romania into indescribable chaos because [of its] inability to understand and adopt best practices from the European railway industry,” the unionists' statement reads.

They also mention that the state operator CFR Călători is in no way protected by the government, to the detriment of private operators. “While the state company receives annual compensations that do not exceed 56% of its turnover, there are today private operators who, paradoxically or not, receive compensations from the state budget exceeding 83% or even 108% of their turnover,” the unionists further state.

The unionists’ comments come after deputy prime minister Dragoş Anastasiu highlighted that 266 state-owned companies generate losses worth RON 2.5 billion annually, with seven accounting for RON 2 billion. He went on to note that among these companies are railway operators CFR, CFR Marfă, but also companies like Termoenergetica, Metrorex, Electrocentrale Craiova SA, and Unifarm SA.

(Photo source: Jerome CID | Dreamstime.com)