Infrastructure

Romania’s trains continue to go backwards

by Craig Turp February 9, 2011 Bucharest

 That Romania’s railways are buggered is no secret. We’ve written about how awful and slow they are many times before. The average speed of Romanian passenger trains is currently just 45kph (and we think even that modest speed is highly doubtful). That is less than half the average speed of Romanian trains in 1989 (91kph). [...]

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Doing away with Bucharest’s six sectors is a sound idea

by Craig Turp February 6, 2011 Bucharest

 To the uninitiated, Bucharest often looks like a city with few – if any – distinct districts or quarters. With the possible exception of Lipscani/Old Town and perhaps the more salubrious areas in the north of the city, it can appear to be one huge urban sprawl of blocks, with nary a distinguishing feature in [...]

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Romania drops the leu and adopts kilometres of motorway as new currency

by Craig Turp November 19, 2010 Bucharest

 It’s official. All costs of all things in Romania will from today be measured not in the local currency – the leu – or any other currency (euros, pounds, dollars or North Korean luncheon vouchers) but instead in kilometres of motorway. Local newspaper Gandul was the first to break the news this morning, leading on [...]

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It looked good on paper: The Bucharest that never was

by Craig Turp October 18, 2010 Bucharest

 We have lost count of the number of ambitious Bucharest real estate projects announced by optimistic property developers over the past few years that have gone absolutely nowhere. From the much-disputed Dambovita Centre (why did anyone bother protesting against it? Any fool could have seen it would never be built) to the luxurious aqua park [...]

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Mayor of Bucharest Sector 2 to solve city’s traffic problems with… ski lifts

by Craig Turp September 15, 2010 Bucharest

 Did you know you can ski in Bucharest? No, we didn’t think you did. Well, you can: when there’s snow of course and when you are ready to walk up a very short slope in order to ski no more than five seconds downhill before having to walk up again. Bucharest’s ski slope is in [...]

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This cable business is getting ridiculous

by Craig Turp September 11, 2010 Bucharest

 We know we go on, and on, about this subject, but then when you see sights like those pictured below, we think we have a right to. This is currently the scene at Piata Unirii, just by the 104/123 bus stop: Does anyone else care about this? Most people we speak to seem utterly indifferent. [...]

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Everything you know about Romanian tourism is wrong

by Craig Turp September 4, 2010 Romania

 Next to rising taxes and the state of the country’s roads, there appears to be nothing more that Romanians like to complain about right now than the fate of the country’s tourism industry. Worrying over the number of foreigners that visit Romania each year has become a national obsession. The country’s Minister of Tourism and [...]

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