Bucharest Public Transport

RATB: Making life just that little bit harder for visitors to Bucharest

by Craig Turp April 29, 2011 Bucharest

 RATB, the operator of surface public transport in Bucharest, is doing away with paper tickets. They will be sold only as long as current stocks last, after which you will need to have either a season ticket or a rechargeable electronic card. This, we imagine, will not make life easy for visitors to Bucharest. Now, [...]

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Why is the prime minister personally opening modestly-sized extensions to airports?

by Craig Turp April 16, 2011 Bucharest

 Given the level of media coverage which greeted the opening of a new extension to Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport last month (all of which was positive) you could be forgiven for thinking that the airport was now a one-stop shop for all sorts, from instant world peace to a cure for cancer. In fact, as we [...]

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Bucharest’s rich can drive cars, the poor can take the bus

by Craig Turp April 2, 2011 Bucharest

 No, that’s not our opinion, instead it’s what we understood from reading this article (part of a series called Five Things Bucharest Should Be Ashamed Of) – written by a chap called Ciprian Ciucu – currently being published over at Contributors, a site dedicated to what can often be decent, well thought through opinion pieces. [...]

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Bucharest public transport in days gone by

by Craig Turp March 4, 2011 Bucharest

 However crowded the next Bucharest bus you happen to get on might be, thank heavens it’s not quite as bad as things were in the 1970s. This propaganda film – which appears with a series of others on the DVD edition of the film Amintiri din Epoca de Aur – is an attempt to blame [...]

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Is there a prize for being first off a Bucharest bus?

by Craig Turp January 15, 2011 Bucharest

 Don’t take this post the wrong way, for we love Bucharest’s public transport system, really we do. Once again this winter RATB (which operates surface public transport) has proven to be one of the city’s few institutions that can genuinely be relied upon to come up with the goods and keep the city moving when [...]

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From Pantelimon to Berceni in 3 hours 28 minutes: Notes from the Bucharest Metro Challenge

by Craig Turp September 19, 2010 Bucharest

 So we did it. In the absence of anyone else mad enough to do so, Bucharest Life and son on Saturday became the first people to visit every station on the Bucharest metro in one go. We did it in three hours, 28 minutes and 24 seconds: more or less what we expected. We would [...]

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The Bucharest Metro Challenge

by Craig Turp September 17, 2010 Bucharest

 So, after much planning and arguing over which route will be quickest, Bucharest Life and son are all set for the Bucharest Metro Challenge. ‘What’s that?’ You don’t ask. Simple: visit every station (there are 43) on the Bucharest metro in as short a time as possible, using only the metro. No cars, busses, trams, [...]

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