Back from a week’s self-catering in south-eastern Sudan with little more than an elephant tusk as a souvenir, we arrived at Otopeni at the weekend to be greeted by an enormous blue sign in Romanian and (quelle surprise) correct English telling us that we could purchase train tickets to the city from the booth on the left as we leave the arrivals hall.
Fantastic!
Eager to try out this new service (which we flagged up long ago) we hurriedly found the booth (which is in fact underneath arrivals, in front of the internal flight terminal)… closed.
Yes, the good news is there is now a bus/train combo to the city from the airport, but the bad news is it keeps irregular hours and clocks off work early.
The last train is at 10.51pm
Bugger.
Undeterred, we will be leaving the country again next week, and intend taking the train to the airport in at least one direction. We will be back with video.
For now, make do with Evenimentul Zilei’s…
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes Anne it is 6 Ron, so $2 USD. They now use smaller busses, more in line of a shuttle bus which can hold about 20 people, and much easier on gas than the big busses they once used.
I just got back from my 4th trip to Bucharest and this service it wonderful, MOST of the time! I got there Aug 26 and needed to get to town in a hurry, BUT there apparently is only one road heading south next to the airport, and there was a huge accident and the road was closed a long time. So anyone needing to get to town was out of luck by car, and the shuttles were overwhelmed with people trying to get to the train stop.
I hear that the next phase of the airport expansion has plans to bring the train right to the terminal, this would be fantastic! In the mean time, I suggest they at least cover the area where you wait for the train, protect people from the rain and or snow, I won’t expect them to cover the ramp area up to the platform so I just left it simple
The service from OTP to Gara De Nord is wonderful! With the daytime traffic in Bucharest it may take you awhile to into town anway, and on a crowded bus or an expensive taxi.
One my third trip to Bucharest and I wouldn't do it any other way! You may wait 20 mins for the bus to take you to the train stop, but its not too bad. The bus is a charter bus type, just throw your baggage underneath and climb on board. The bus takes about 4 minutes to get to the train stop. The train is usually there in 5 mins or so.
Once at Gara De Nord it's a MUCH cheaper taxi ride to where you need to go
So many times I visited in Bucharest but I can not find any reason for travelling from the airport to gara de nord with train.
Let us have a look at the schedule here, including the time the bus starts at the airport, respectively the train departure time from the, pay attention, the “P.O. Aeroport H” Station (one has to type exactly that on Mersul Trenurilor Website. The reason for which they do not have trains at night is simple and stupid: Bucharest’s Gara de Nord is closed between midnight and 5 AM (the sole exception used to apply to Moscow / Kiev / Minsk / L’viv – Burgas / Varna charter trains that used to run in summer and transited the station at 01.00-03.00 AM; now these wagons are usually attached to the regular R383/382). Anyway…
Downside: they use 110 seat Siemens Desiro trains. The bus – as far as I can see – is a Filaret service, and they have 49+1 or 44+1 seat Volvos. So, a few technical problems:
1. What happens if the train arrives with, say, 70 people on board?
2. Why did not they use regular, low floor buses, where one can get with the luggage on board, instead of coaches where one has to place luggage in the deck (which makes it all take longer time).
3. The political game aside, is the LNP Mayor of Otopeni going to enlarge the street and put some asphalt on it, so that a 1 km. and something bus ride takes less than 10-15 minutes?
Other than that, I hope that this service survives, even imperfect as it is. At least for the sake of those people it can serve (i.e. daytime flights), and to kill at least some of the taxi mafia at the airport.
Hi Blake, any idea how much is the price of this trip? OTP to Gara de Nord with the bus-train option?
Forget about it! I got the answer, is about 6 ron.
Thanks anyway for the comments on the trip.