The Bucharest Life kids are off to the countryside this week for their annual peasant experience. We went to get their train tickets this morning, one each for them and one for Bucharest Life’s mother-in-law.
Not for the first time this month, we turned up at the CFR agency on Strada Brezoianu and were left gobsmacked. This time, it wasn’t inefficiency that left us speechless, it was the price.
A return ticket for one adult and two children, from Bucharest to Satu Mare, including reservations in a sleeping compartment, on the overnight Rapid, costs 830 lei. (380 lei for the adult, 320 lei for the first child and 130 lei for the second child). That’s almost exactly €200. That’s a lot. Especially as the sleeping coaches are nothing special (we will tell you later this week exactly what kind of accommodation that money gets you), and the journey takes a soul-destroying 12 hours. (Distance covered? 746 kilometres).
Driving, apropos, with a complete lack of motorways the whole distance, and with two kids in the back of the motor, takes about three weeks.
When we got back to the office we priced up a flight. We hadn’t considered it as we just didn’t think the train would cost that much. (And we do not actually have to spend 12 hours on the train ourselves).
Price for one adult and two children for a Bucharest to Satu Mare return with Tarom? €196, all taxes etc. included. Almost exactly the same price. And Tarom has a monopoly on that route (as it does on most internal routes in Romania).
So, lesson learned. Next time we (or our offspring) travel somewhere in Romania will not even consider the train. We suggest anyone reading this does the same. Try Tarom before booking any train tickets.
Until this summer I was a fan of trains. I got so many ‘hits’ this summer that i downright HATE them. The CFR agency in my town left me speechless two times; once in May we went to get our tickets (Arad to Bucharest) and the system was down (we wanted to leave the same day and we really wanted seats in the over-night train — thank you, couchete is too expensive!); after 2 hrs (luckily the agency is on the street i live) we got the tickets; the 2 time, in August we wanted to get train passes for Vienna (50% off the regular round trip ticket) …they didn’t have a PC and insisted i could get the passes the day I leave. We eventually got them from the train station BUT when we left the train was delayed 6 HOURS and would have lost the accommodation in Vienna so we asked for a refund (pfuuu, we got it)
Next time we plan to go from Arad to Bucharest and we don’t rush to the agency, we are taking the plane (BlueAir flies on the route and the price is really affordable!)
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I take your point that the sleeper car is expensive by Romanian standards but it is also quite good — clean linen, ok bed, sink, electricity, mineral water & washbag laid on, and each wagon has its own waiter/minder — and the 1940s style is attractive to some. The best thing about the sleeper is that you leave at night and arrive in the morning so all that slow travel is done as you are sleeping (if you can! Some people can’t sleep thro’ all the creaking and screeching). But if you compare the price of plane vs train to UK prices I think you’ll find that in UK the sleeper will be about 5 times more expensive that Easy Jet. The other factor is that most train tickets in RO are pretty cheap and if you get the couchette (2nd class sleeper) it’s about half the price, and if you get a normal 2nd class ticket it really does get cheap. I just got the train to Sibiu, with my bike, which they didn’t object to or charge for, and the cost was just under 70 RON. I was very happy with the service and spent a lot more on food when cycling back.
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Bucharest Life Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 9:55 am
Partly agree. Delivered kids and soacra to the train tonight and the sleeping wagon was fine, but no different to those I have myself slept on many times. I too enjoy waking up in a differnet place. Thing is, because this train is a rapid (they took the sleeping wagon off the acelerat) it costs more, yet it is the same wagon that would have been attached. As for the cuchettes, they fine for adults but not really suitable for children.
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Bucharest Life Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 9:59 am
And I am a fan of trains: given the choice I like to go for the train, but it should be cheaper. And in Romania it needs to be quicker. Three hours to Constanta or Brasov is a nonsense, 12 hours to Satu Mare is nonsense. I do not want to get all green here (heavens forbid!) but the train needs to be cheap and quick: in Germany taking the train is a no brainer. Not here, they too expensive (relatively) and too slow.
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Well tonight when I take the gang to the train I hope to be pleasantly surprised: maybe it will be a new sleeping wagon with air con, hot showers and a children’s play area ala Sweden/German etc. Then again maybe not…
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Compare the road maps of Romania and for example France or Germany and you’re gonna see why we have those prices: because there’s no road =))
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I have tried that myself: went for a week end to Sinaia with wife by train. All costs put together were about 25% than a nice week in Vienna, accommodation included, going there by plane. I will not make that sort of mistake again!
By the way, Romania in order to develop further, needs a high degree of mobility of people and goods and that not only means many roads, motorways and railroads, but also affordable means of transport. What I can see now is that affordability and road network quality/ quantity are diminishing at an alarming pace. It is another symptom of the oncoming Great Romanian Depression. After the excesses of the last three years when money were sloshing around, splashed by stupid western investment funds on arrogant and irresponsible natives and their doubtful quality assets, the great correction is coming and Romania will go back to its rightful place among the less developed nations of the European Union. That is quite a painful transition process and in the meanwhile we have to suffer the “exotic” abusive prices of these arrogant and now desperate companies like the railways and most from the so-called Romanian hospitality industry.
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