The derailed Romanian passenger train. Photo from Mediafax
Monday’s railway accident in south-western Romania, in which an acelerat train derailed while travelling at 100km, injuring 15 people but miraculoulsy causing no fatalities, has quickly become the country’s most discussed story, with many people – political commentators and ordinary citizens alike – seeing it as the embodiment of all that has gone wrong in post-revolutionary Romania.
(Apropos, the fact the train was travelling at 100/kph is probably the most remarkable part of the story; see below).
Incredibly, later the same day, another train – this time carrying fuel – also derailed, this time near Cluj-Napoca.
Though the passenger train appears to have been derailed deliberately – by the removal of the bolts that hold pieces of track together – the precarious, deplorable state of Romania’s railways has once again been thrust into the limelight.
We have written a number of times on the subject of Romania’s railways, rarely – if, indeed, ever – have we had a good word to say about them.
And rightly so. They are slow and useless. How slow? Well, half as slow as they were 20 years ago.
As the newspaper Gandul reported earlier this year, the average speed of trains on Romanian tracks has halved since 1989. That’s right, halved.
In 1989, the average speed of Romanian trains was close to 100/kph (91/kph, to be exact). In 2008, the average speed was 60/kph (and those figures come from the Secretary of State for railways). So far this year the average speed is thought to be even slower, around 55/kph.
(For more on slow trains, here’s a brilliant piece – in Romanian only, alas – by Adevarul editor Grigore Cartianu on the almost three hours it took a train to travel from Constanta to the seaside resort of Neptun. A journey of 35 kilometres at an average speed of 13/kph).
At this rate – if our admittedly un-scientific, back-of-an-envelope calculations are correct – Romanian trains will start travelling backwards some time around 2020.
We blame Ceausescu.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Din intamplare am dat peste blogul tau si iti spun cat se poate de sincer ca in orice tara din lumea asta ai face lejer puscarie vreo 5-6 ani pentru idioteniile spuse de tine si preluate din pacate si de straini.In primul rand iti dai cu parerea absolut aiurea si in necunostinta de cauza despre caile ferate din Romania,despre viteze absolut fantastice pe care le-ar fi avut CFR-ul inainte de revolutie(120km/h),despre cei 35km parcursi in 3 ore si multe alte ineptii,despre cele 50000 de accidente care se produc zilnic pe calea ferata din Romania incat imi vine personal sa te dau in judecata pentru calomniile si jignirile aduse romanilor si statului roman!Inainte de aface asfel de afirmatii te intreb:1.poti sa publici vreo pagina din mersul trenurilor din ce an vrei tu de unde sa reiasa ca pe vreo portiune din calea ferata romana s-a circulat vreodata cu 120km/h(vezi ca exista o arhiva la muzeul cailor ferate romane,du-te si cauta si publica pe blog);2.daca vreodata s-a defectat o locomotiva pe calea ferata Constanta-Mangalia tu lasi oamenii sa inteleaga ca in fiecare zi distanta de 35 de kilometri dintre Constanta si Neptun se parcurge in 3 ore inseamna ca ai grave probleme si trebuie sa te cauti mai bine;3.Eu am fost in toata lumea asta si cunosc toate caile ferate posibile si imposibile si iti spun ca in Romania nu au avut loc accidente grave in care sa fie un numar semnificativ de victime sau pagube foarte mari,asa cum s-a intamplat in ultimii 2 ani in tari in care cica se merita sa traiesti cum ar fi Croatia si Cehia,dar nu stiu de ce imi bat eu capul cu tine,cel care preiei tot felul de informatii din ziare de parca nu ai stii ca tot aceste ziare care au in primul rand menirea sa informeze corect sunt aservite politic iar tinta lor frecventa este cetateanul naiv necitit si neinformat asa ca tine Asa ca,mosule,pune mana si mai documenteaza-te ca esti varza la toate capitolele si ce este cel mai prost dintre toate este faptul ca te cred si strainii!
Parmalat:
I was born 17 February 1978. So I am Aquarius, but missed Pisces by a day. Often I am more Pisces than Aquarius. Why?
Re: Basescu. I love seeing how much security he has. There aren’t really guns here in Romania, so why all the protection?! I mean in the US most people own weapons. Obama really is in danger + the rest of the world hates America. No one really is aware of Romania. I mean no foreigner has signaled out Basescu as public enemy #1. Four Secret Service BMW 5 series cars around Basescu’s Mercedes and then a police van with commandos as well?! Yikes!
@Davin: what sign are you?
Romania is a moronic country. The women look amazing and Maramures is cool and the youth scene in Bucharest can be fun, but I mean as a good country to live in Romania is a joke. I am here for the adventure of it and for interesting pictures. If I had any other job I would never be living here.
Dead right. Everything is Ceausescu’s fault. Absolutely everything
=))
A really round and tasty article by Craig!
Yea, keep’em coming, the only things that are not missing from Romania are subjects for this kind of articles.
=))
This year in May we took the train from Arad to Bucharest; it was delayed 2 hrs b/c of the Hungarian Railways Worker Strike.
Later, in Aug, we took the very same time; this time it was delayed 1 hr (no one knew why) and it arrived more than 2 hrs delayed.
I’ve been taking the train on this route for the past 7 yrs and each year it takes us LONGER! Seriously…I remember back in 2002 that even the dreaded accelerat took abt 9 hrs to get to Bucharest but by this year, the Rapid took 10 h 30 min…
Not that you save much by driving… last year we drove from Bucharest to Arad…14 hrs!!! by comparison Arad to Vienna is abt the same distance but it took us 6 hrs on the highway… what is WRONG wt this picture? (in Romania)
A bit late for this reply but Martin Dixon had the right idea recently by walking from Bucharest to Brasov. He even beat the train too!