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In many European countries people increasingly use trains for their travel, preferring them to cars. This is not happening in Romania and Bulgaria, because of the poor state of rail service. Something is starting to change however
(This article was originally published by the Romanian outlet Hotnews in the framework of the PULSE project)
Romania has more than eight million cars, compared to 1.5 million in 1989. Yet the number of annual train journeys has dropped fivefold since 1990. What has happened?
Many European countries are now trying to entice people out of their cars and onto the train. One solution is heavily discounted passes which cover much of the rail network. In many countries you can find ordinary tickets at low prices, as long as you buy them a month in advance. Yet in Romania no such deals exist.
It is not only about prices: there are plenty of Romanians who refuse even to contemplate a long train journey. What if the locomotive breaks down in a field? What if the air conditioning fails when it's baking hot outside? What if the toilet can be smelled halfway down the carriage?
Romania is modernising on average only a few dozen kilometres of track every year. As for an expected batch of 37 Polish-produced electric trains, only two of them have arrived and it will be at least six months before they are ready to enter service.
Commuters often have to use long-distance trains which are full and require them to stand. Moreveor, data is always coming out about how many millions of minutes Romanian trains are late per year. Not a day goes by without trains being delayed by at least 100 minutes. Typically, the engine car breaks down and the emergency locomotive takes two hours to arrive. It is no wonder that such things happen: the average age of Romania's locomotive fleet is 40-45 years.
In Romania we do not have S-Bahn-type trains around our big cities, and we no longer have dining cars. Romania has one of Europe's largest fleets of night trains, but they are a far cry from the service of Austrian Nightjet or Hungary's MAV. Often filthy, Romania's night trains are over 30 years old and worn out. There are no plans to buy new ones.
Despite the many drawbacks to train travel in Romania, tickets are not cheap. An InterRegio fare from Bucharest to Sibiu costs 90 lei (around €18) in 2nd class. For a decade the prices remained unchanged, but last year there was a 30% rise. If you take the "Sun Train" from Oradea to Eforie Nord on the Black Sea, it takes nearly 18 and a half hours and the ticket costs 240 lei (around €48) for a four-berth couchette place.
Indeed, having had a bad experience with the railway company CFR Călători or with private operators, many Romanians have sworn that they will never again travel by rail, regardless of the comparative cost of road or air travel.
Bulgaria: slow but cheap trains
Bulgaria counts on an extensive rail network, even if its golden age was the pre-1989 communist era. Back then, trains were a part of life for Bulgarians: 90% took them in preference to buses. Today, the proportions have reversed, and the private car remains a staple, as in Romania.
The reasons are many. Bulgaria's rail network is outdated and an EU-funded modernization that began 15 years ago is proceeding slowly. In many areas train speeds are restricted to 30 km/h and on the best lines the average speed is 70-80 km/h. Between Bulgaria's two biggest cities, Sofia and Plovdiv, the 156-kilometre journey takes between two and a half and four hours.
Bulgarian trains stop very often, which adds enormously to journey times. As in Romania, trains across Bulgaria therefore have low average speeds. For example, the four-carriage 480-kilometre Sofia-Burgas journey takes almost eight hours. Varna to Ruse, a journey of 226 km, takes almost four hours. And data from state rail operator BDZ shows that 20% of all Bulgarian train services are delayed.
On the other hand, Bulgarian trains are much cheaper than the bus: often less than half the price, and as much as five times less. Young people under 26 and pensioners get a 50% discount if they buy a special card costing less than €1. Children under seven travel for free.
Some of the stories from Bulgaria are similar to what travellers have experienced on Romanian trains. A representative case: "One summer I travelled by train from Sofia to Kiustendil and it was 40 degrees outside, but instead of air conditioning, the heating was on", says Boryana, a 75-year-old pensioner. "The windows didn't open. I almost died, and after that incident I stopped using BZD trains."
For her part, Maria regularly uses the railway network because she doesn't have a driver's licence. "Otherwise I wouldn't take the train," she says. She is unhappy because long-distance trains are often late and have too few carriages. "Last time I travelled for two hours with my children and there were not enough seats on the train. And not just seats, there was not even standing room." Romanians will be able to relate to her story.
Fortunately, Bulgaria's modernization plans are at least moving forward. The first of a total of 76 second-hand Deutsche Bahn carriages have now arrived. Although not new, they are said to be light years ahead of what the country has now. A €1.5 billion plan funded by the European Commission is set to pay for 62 trains and 18 locomotives. Alas, little of the available money has been used to date. Contracts have been signed for only nine electric locomotives and seven double-decker trains. The rolling stock is due to arrive by the end of 2026, but it is uncertain that this date will be kept.
Lilly Granitzka from Mediapool (Bulgaria) has contributed to the production of this article.
This article was produced in the framework of PULSE, a European initiative coordinated by OBCT which supports cross-border journalistic collaborations.
