Romania’s passenger trains rack up delays of 12,500 minutes daily

The minister of transports, Felix Stroe, said during a hearing in Parliament that CFR Calatori, the state-owned operator of passenger trains in Romania, registers combined delays of 12,500 minutes daily.

Stroe said that 70 percent of the delays were generated by speed restrictions imposed by CFR Infrastructura, the arm of CFR that handles the railway infrastructure network.

“I rode the train four times in 20 days and I will continue to do it 200 times in the next year because it is a very good way to take the sector’s pulse. It is the average delay that CFR Calatori recorded in the last year and before this,” said Stroe, adding that only 5 percent of the delays are triggered by the technical state of the rolling stock.

The minister went on to say that he will ask CFR Infrastructura to make a review of all the speed restrictions, because the company doesn’t have a “clear situation” at this moment.