Romanian Railways Struggle Despite Joining the Schengen Area

Even though Romania joined the EU’s Schengen area on January 1, which cancels the border control for member states, people traveling by train still have to wait at Romanian-Hungarian (and Romanian-Bulgarian) rail border crossings. A trip from Timișoara (Temesvár, near the Southern borders with Romania) to Budapest by train takes almost six and a half hours, reported Krónika Online.

A man from Timișoara, who often travels to the Hungarian capital by train, shared his experiences. In his experience before the Schengen accession, he had to wait for an hour and a half at the Romanian-Hungarian border, during which time the border police checked travel documents, changed locomotives and carried out a technical inspection and handover of the train.

It is frustrating to have to wait the same amount of time after Schengen accession.

Last time, for example, the train at the Kürtös-Lőkösháza border crossing was at a standstill for an hour and a half. The locomotive changeover, however, takes no more than 15 minutes. During the rest of the time, you can enjoy the scenery or smoke a cigarette, depending on your mood. In addition, between Timișoara and Arad, the train only runs at 20 kilometers an hour due to track renewal. From Arad to Kürtös, it runs at 130 km/h, and in Hungary there is no problem either, the electric locomotives run at 120 km/h,” says Flavius Sebastian.

The passenger from Timișoara asked for an explanation from CFR’s public services and, to his surprise, received a very quick reply:

The state railway company said that the train timetable is updated once a year, and that the current one was decided at the beginning of December, when at the time the EU Home Affairs Council had not yet taken a decision on Romania’s (and Bulgaria’s) Schengen accession.

According to the CFR, the waiting time at the railway border crossing points of Curtici (Kürtös), Episcopia Bihor (Biharpüspöki), Valea lui Mihai (Érmihályfalvi) and Giurgiu (Gyurgyevó) (settlements near the Hungarian-Romanian border) is still due to locomotive replacement and technical checks, but “as soon as a possible solution to shorten the time is found, it will be considered”.

The change of timetable should also be coordinated with the railway authorities of the neighboring country, and it should be taken into account that on sections where there are no track pairs but only one pair of tracks, the timetable should be designed in such a way that local trains coming from the opposite direction can wait for international trains at one of the stations, they added.

Large-scale Renovation of Railway Stations to Be Launched