With those 10 billion euros, Romania has managed to modernise 600 kilometres of railways. Another 900 kilometres of works are ongoing with an estimated value of 6 billion euros.

That is a lot of work that is still underway, but Staicu is happy about the point Romania is about to reach. After all these years, major investments are reaching their ‘delivery moment’.

“That’s quite an important milestone in our activity, because all of society, the European Union and so on only look at completed investments. No one is keen on hearing that you struggle, or you have issues, or you found out that you need to modify some laws internally or regulations. Everyone is looking for that missing connection or bottleneck that is making everyone spend days or weeks without moving their freight and passengers”, says Staicu.

TEN-T and Constanța

EU funding has primarily been directed towards the TEN-T network and associated corridors in Romania, specifically the Rhine-Danube corridor and the newly created Baltic-Black Sea-Aegean corridor. Over 80% of investments have gone toward completing these corridors, with a major focus on the Rhine-Danube corridor’s main axis, linking the west (Curtici) to Constanța.

Staicu highlights two projects on this axis that are close to completion. “We have works ongoing between Brașov and Sighișoara with two big tunnels now being drilled. The expectation is for it to be completed in 2028. In the meantime, the status is around 98-99% from Sighișoara to Simeria and further on.”

The overarching goal of these projects is to allow freight and passengers alike to move across Romania quickly. The Black Sea and Romania’s biggest asset, the Port of Constanța, play a central role in this idea. The latter has seen substantial investments in its links with the broader rail network.

As a result, it could serve as a more attractive entry point for goods into Europe. This holds especially true, considering that it is the largest and deepest container port in the Black Sea. It therefore also occupies a key position on the Middle Corridor from China to Europe.

An approach in stages

Multimodality (linking different transport modes) and energy efficiency (including extensive electrification and introducing new technologies) are current priorities to ensure the network supports economic growth, explains Staicu. The Danube river also offers opportunities for better multimodal connectivity to the European hinterland – which is why Romania is working on an extensive dredging programme to secure year-round navigability.

EU funding has greatly helped Romania to implement these projects. However, money does not grow on trees and is in limited supply. Budgetary constraints exert a restricting effect on infrastructure works. While Romania tries to comply with all TEN-T standards (160 kilometres per hour for passenger trains, 22.5-tonne axle load, 740-metre train length, electrification, and ERTMS), implementing all of this is not always financially feasible.

As a result, the approach has recently shifted to tackling TEN-T standards in different stages of implementation. By prioritising the most critical infrastructure works, like axle load and electrification, Romania aims to meet the minimum interoperability standards first. These factors are must-haves for a train to be able to enter the network from neighbouring countries and to make unhindered cross-border traffic possible.

Aid from the European Commission is on the way, but time is of the essence

During a joint press conference with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, the president of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, said that there already are three packages to deal with the damages. The first initiative is the EU Solidarity Funds, which will bring 400 million euros. Of these, 100 million euros will be made available for this year, while the rest will be dispensed next year.

“The second element is NextGenerationEU”, von der Leyen said. As she explained, there are 2,7 billion euros that Slovenia can request, but it needs to do so by the end of August. For this reason, a joint task force was created by the Slovenian government and the EC to work on the administrative requirements to make sure that the money is accessible. Finally, a third package comes from the EU Cohesion Funds. As the EC’s president highlighted, there are 3,3 billion euros of programmed investments that can be repurposed and can be used until 2027.

Bad weather disrupting operations all over Europe

Unusually high amounts of rain are causing problems, including for rail freight not only in Slovenia. The same is happening, for example, in Sweden and Norway, where many lines had to be closed and numerous freight services had to be suppressed. Moreover, bad weather is causing disruption in Belarus as well, where, according to Belarusian Railways, 51 passenger trains had to be cancelled. The company did not provide any information about rail freight services, but it is likely that they are affected as well. In May, moreover, floods hit northern Italy, significantly affecting rail freight companies active in the area.