My summertrip in Romania.

Bună ziua,

I had my summer holliday in Romania this year. I have never been before at the Blacksea coast, so I decided to go there with a friend. We go by plane from Olanda to București with Wizzair and started our journey there.
In the plane, there were a lot of other people from Olanda, but strangely enough, nobody of them took the RATB bus...
In București we had a hotel near Metrou Piața Romană (strada Jean Louis Calderon) opposite the Hungarian embassy.
This was a pleasant part of București.

After a good night sleep, we made a reservation for IR1587 to Constanța at 16.00h, I had internet ticket but my friend bought a ticket with his 50% discount Fip card. Our destination for this day was Eforie Nord, where we had a hotel.
But at the ticket window, the lady wouldn't sell him a ticket to Eforie Nord, because she told us she could only sell us a ticket for a direct train/ not the combination IR1587+R8805. It sounds a bit strange to me, i suppose that a costumer can buy a ticket from any destination to any destination in Romania at every ticket window? Maybe she didn't understand us.

Some pictures in București Nord around 12.00h:


My friend is traindriver and he claims that this loco's got other ''boghiuri'' in Romania than they had in France?




Poor train to Bulgaria.


DH2. Nice to see the DH2 serving the Romanian capital. In Olanda they have never seen Amsterdam...
This train must be a crime in hot Romanian summers with the small windows.

To fill the 4 hours in the city we took RATB105 to Parcul Herăstrău and walked a little bit in the shadows overthere.


While waiting for the bus, this tram drove by.


End of the line near Parcul Herăstrău. Inside the bus the temperature was very high I think over 40 degrees.
Almost every Citaro drove with open panels at the rear end of the bus. Is that to prevent the motor for overheating?


Back to the station with the new metro, your metro system has perhaps the widest cars in Europe?
They look really spacious with over 3 metres from door to door in width.


IR to Constanța.


Bridge.


What will be the speed at this bridge after rehabilitation?






2nd bridge. Between those two, the train managed to drive some seconds 160km/h before breaking.


Constanța.




Regio to Mangalia.


Eforie Nord, where we stayed for some days.


R8805. Altough the train seems to have airconditioning, the temperature was higher in the train, then outside...


The IR to Sibiu is arriving.


With 5 persons in the cabine.

Eforie Nord is totally different than beaches in Olanda; the sandy beaches are the same but in Romania
it seemed to me the people come to the beach for adrenaline, in Netherlands for the relaxing. There are no beaches with loud music here, in Eforie Nord I was sometimes almost blown away by the hard music. It was also hard to find a restaurant there which was a real restaurant, and not a self-buffet in a large hall whit loud music and fluorescent tubes at the roof.


Circus elefant in the street.

The next days we spended on the beach, and tried several beaches like Eforie Sud, Costinesti and Mangalia. Eforie Sud was the most relaxing beach for my wishes.


Here the music was even louder dan Eforie Nord.




The train occupied the road for some minutes. In my opinion a very long time.


I like the architecture of this line very much. With the little mosaic details.




Another daytrip to Mangalia. The trains are relative slow on the route, at almost every station we waited some minutes.
Without that, I believe Constanta- Mangalia could save 30 minutes or something.






Sunsets over Lacul Techirghiol.


Another day we spent on the nice beach in Eforie Sud. When we go back, the train to Eforie Nord (and Sibiu) was about to arrive so we decided to go by train instead of bus. We bought 2 traintickets. Perhaps the shortest traintrip in my life; 3 kilometres only.


When was this in function?


Back in Constanta, on our way to Sighișoara.


Arriving of the Hyperion in Constanta. A CFR train from the same direction (București) to Mangalia arrived at exactly the same moment from the other direction. The Hyperion has the shortest route, while the CFR train arrived the station from the southside with an longer route (the 3/4 circle) in the city Constanta. Is that how it's planned?


Inside the train. Very nice train! I hope some companies have the courage to buy these Romanian trains.


I was hoping to go by Hyperion to Brașov, but the staff explained the second Hyperion has some delays.


IR1582 Our train to București. This was at a saturday, 13.00h. The train had a 110% occupation.
About 10 passengers per carriage were not able to find a seat. One man claimed my seat; he had same seatnumber and coachnumber. But he was an hour too early, his reservation was for the next train... We shared our compartment wih an international mix; one from Poland, one from Germany, two from Olanda (we) and one Romanian lady who works in Switserland. We had some nice conversations with them. The trip with IR1582 took 1.53 exact. While the train to Constanta did it in 2.02h. The train to București drove with 160km/h through a station (near km 70 I guess?) were train IR1587 to Constanta only had a speed of 70km/h.


IR1527 to Brașov. Inside the train, it was over 40 degrees, while there was no airco functionning. But when made a little walk in the train, I discoverd the first class coach, which had a nice and comfortable temperature. This was the only carriage with a working airco installation. Is this a coincidence? Or are the aircos in the first class better maintained?
We decided to sit there, and eventually pay the difference between the second and first class. The trainstaff didn't want money for that and started a conversation with us; the same question as always in Romania: what is the salary in Olanda (between 1800€ and 2100€ netto, depends on how many nights or weekend you worked), when do you retire (at 66 years, but maybee later in the future) etc etc. There were two other people in the compartment and we had a conversation during the whole route. We shared some food and drinks. One of them claimed: Olandezi are careful with their country and environment because they made their country them selves out of the sea with dykes and polders; and Romanian are acting like: We recieved our country from god, so we have the right to use and spill its recources.
I'm not sure if his claim is correct... but it was interesting.
The train arrived 15 minutes late in Brasov; between Gara de Nord and Ploiești the train never reached a higher speed than 70/80km/h.



After Brașov we took R3535. This train has 3 carriages. It was filled up with țigani. It was a little culture shock for us, after the civilised Romanians we spoke with in the IR trains. People were smoking, had loud music, children are begging. One child of only 3 years old was pissing in the corridor right in front of me instead of going to the toilet with his mother. When they leave the train in the small villages between Brasov and Rupea, they leave all their trash in the train behind. The conductor made a talk with us and said that this train was very dangerous. He told us that he counted 130 people in the train and only 20 with a guilty trainticket, but he couldn't do something against it. It must be a hard job for him.


Sighișoara. Very nice old town. I was there before in the winter. Touristis from all over the world were now in Sighisoara.

From Sighioara we go on a daytrip to Mediaș and Biertan.


IR1745 to Mediaș. This trip took us 80 minutes, and when we arrived in Mediaș our bus to Biertan was already gown.
The train had to wait 15 minutes in Sighișoara before departure to cross with a cargo train.



The section is under rehabilitation, but exept for one place where they were working on a bridge, i didn't seen any other ''active'' works or workers...


Mediaș.




R3502 back to Sighișoara, consist of only 1 carriage. Again lot of țigani, but they stayed in their ''own'' part of the train, while other people were quiet Romanian commuters.





The next destination of this journey was some days in Brașov.


This was an IR arriving at 13.30 in Sighișoara as it's final station, from direction Simeria. I can't find this train in the CFR railplanner at this moment...?




There are not so much trains in Sighișoara, but there were some actions with empty trains. After arriving of this IR, one car was held of the composition, and was placed at platform 1 (as you can see here) I don't know why.


The locomotive was back at the rest of the empty train some minutes later.

We were waiting for IR1746 to Brasov, but nothing happened on time of departure, there was no train.
Some minutes later; this vehicle showed up at the tracks, some other tourists were loughing and joking:
CFR will transport us with this train to Brasov! They sayed.



20 minutes later IR1746 arrived.


IR 1746 in Brașov.


Train to Constanta in Brașov.

We liked Brașov very much, also it's green surroundings near the old city center.
There was even a German style Oktoberfest.


We made an excursion to Bran and Râșnov (recommended by DR2005 a year ago, thanks!)


Râșnov. In Râșnov were some inactive Regiotrans trains, what's the reason why they are staying there without functionning?






Bran castle. We were the only tourists which took the efford to walk to the other side of the castle to take some pictures of the more pittoresque side. Inside the castle I recognised the same tourguide (with different group) as I saw in the restaurant in Sighisoara some days before. Romania is a small country


Panorama in Brașov from mount Tâmpa. I try to discover the CFR station, but I couldn't see it. Perhaps it's more in the east and not visible from here?

When we got back from Brașov to București, we were told train Dacia-347 has 50 minutes delay, train IR1634 departed earlier, so we waited for that train. From Brașov to București are frequent trains, but not between 9.30h and 13.38h. Why is there such a huge gap? And between 13.38h and 14.16h are 3 trains... And I was also a bit sad that every train from and to the west part of Romania via Brasov has delays between 15 minutes and one hour.


Regiotrans to București.


Regio to Teius.


Regiotrans to Intorsura Buzaului. Corabia seems to be a bit far away from here...


This train looks a bit in a sad condition.


A nice line up in the station.






IR1634 in Gara de Nord. This train was also filled for 110% CFR made a good job on all IR trains during our journey in two weeks when it comes to passenger numbers. The train was a little to early, and we had to wait therefore 7 minutes in Buftea.

Some other pictures of that moment:



EN Dacia arrived 5 minutes after IR1634.


R to Buzau. Perhaps the only CFR traintype in which I never travelled.



Traintickets:



I didn't use FIP coupons this time.

This was the trip I made, I enjoyed it really much. I love Romania, and this was the 10th visit there for me.

Citat :

IR1527 to Brașov. Inside the train, it was over 40 degrees, while there was no airco functionning. But when made a little walk in the train, I discoverd the first class coach, which had a nice and comfortable temperature. This was the only carriage with a working airco installation. Is this a coincidence? Or are the aircos in the first class better maintained?

There is no air conditioning in the 20-76 coaches, only ventilation.

Citat :

between Gara de Nord and Ploiești the train never reached a higher speed than 70/80km/h.

Heat restriction, it happens often in the hot summers, when temperature in the rails goes over 50 deg. Celsius.

Citat :

This was an IR arriving at 13.30 in Sighișoara as it's final station, from direction Simeria. I can't find this train in the CFR railplanner at this moment...?

This is a group from Dacia (346-1 and 347-2) trains, it actually goes Sighişoara - Budapest Keleti and back.

Citat :

IR1634 in Gara de Nord. This train was also filled for 110%

It is charged as a Regio train, that's why it's always full.

@Dr2005; I was at the coach in the middle of the train from this picture.

These ones do have airconditioning I guess? I saw them also running on long distance trains to Iași for example.
I may sound a little negative; but the Romanian heat is uncommon for me, summers in Netherlands do only have a few days with temperatures of 30+ So I'm not used to the heat in the trains.

First one is a 20-49 coache series(also sometimes a .0 is added) and does not have AC
The second and third coaches are 20-49.2 series( a modernised version of the first) and have pneumatic exterior doors and AC.

Sometimes the train staff will not turn on the air conditioning, especially in regio trains, to spare some fuel. Other times, the locomotive will not supply electricity for the AC machines.
In the Netherlands the summer is like our late spring our early autumn, it is very very cold sometimes. I have an aunt there and I remember visiting her a few years ago, and the temperature was 15-17 degrees for like 3 days in a row, I was freezing. Here we rarely have days in July and August with less than 30 or 25 degrees...
I traveled by train in the Netherlands once, and I remember thinking that the EMU that took us from Apeldoorn to Schiphol Airport was more uncomfortable than our own Desiro trainsets. The speed, on the other hand, was good, at 130 km/h on long distances. The train seemed really cramped and small, but for a short journey it was ok.

So, you've seen our wonderful "tigani"...

A month ago I was in Oswiecim, Poland, and while we were out in the hotel's garden, drinking a beer, a dutch guy passed by us, so we invited him to join us for a little bit. One of his first questions was about "tigani" and if we feel safe here. While I was in Poland, I really really enjoyed the lack of these scums.

Next time, if you want to come back in Romania, consider visiting the central and north part of the country, or maybe Moldova, via one of the rails that pass through the mountains.

Caspar a scris:

Eforie Nord is totally different than beaches in Olanda; the sandy beaches are the same but in Romania
it seemed to me the people come to the beach for adrenaline, in Netherlands for the relaxing. There are no beaches with loud music here, in Eforie Nord I was sometimes almost blown away by the hard music. It was also hard to find a restaurant there which was a real restaurant, and not a self-buffet in a large hall whit loud music and fluorescent tubes at the roof.
Here the music was even louder dan Eforie Nord.

Unfortunately accoustic pollution is a "trend" in Romania. Bad luck for the ones that try to get some relaxation (me included).
Someone decided that we all should "fell good" the way he wanted. We have "mandatory" entertainment&music everywhere here: in the car, in the bus, in shops, in restaurants, dentist room, on the beach and in parks. In my workplace we even had music in the toilet...

Caspar a scris:

I like the architecture of this line very much. With the little mosaic details.

That was 1960's style. In Bucharest we have many buildings from that period, decorated in a similar fashion. I like them also.

Caspar a scris:

When was this in function?

In think it was in the late '90s.

Caspar a scris:

After Brașov we took R3535. This train has 3 carriages. It was filled up with țigani. It was a little culture shock for us, after the civilised Romanians we spoke with in the IR trains. People were smoking, had loud music, children are begging. One child of only 3 years old was pissing in the corridor right in front of me instead of going to the toilet with his mother. When they leave the train in the small villages between Brasov and Rupea, they leave all their trash in the train behind. The conductor made a talk with us and said that this train was very dangerous. He told us that he counted 130 people in the train and only 20 with a guilty trainticket, but he couldn't do something against it. It must be a hard job for him.

See why they are so loved by us and other people? On trains that are not operated by CFR Calatori this type of behaviour is not permitted. They hired guards and they keep the gipsyes at bey (and they also make them pay the tickets).