The Romanian Railways find themselves at a crossroads. On one hand they are trying to modernize and rebuild the infrastructure, while on the other hand thousands of employees from CFR Freight-Passengers-Infrastructure will be sacked. Meanwhile, the airline companies that introduce new internal routes are becoming a real competitor for the railways. In what concerns the market’s liberalization and the opening of the railway transport for passengers to competitors, the Transport Ministry (MT) representatives have stated that the goal of the 3 European legislative packages introduced in the railway transport domain (both freight and passengers) as early as 10 years ago was coherent liberalization in a stable and legal economic environment. According to the MT, its forecasted effects consist of hiking the efficiency, the quality and the availability of services. The EU directives show that member states can deny free access on the market when access to certain routes could endanger the economic balance of public service contracts. Thus, before taking a decision, the member state has to conduct an efficient and transparent analysis through the regulatory body. The regulatory body, independent of all the actors on the railway market, is the one that decides – by weighing all the aspects and respecting the legislative framework – to offer or limit the access to the national railway infrastructure for operators that did not contract public services, MT adds. On the other hand, the MT representatives consider that the passenger traffic is influenced by the general economic environment and the transport conditions. ‘As the travel times drop and the railway transport services are given a rhythm, the number of clients will grow,’ the MT assures. The Ministry’s representatives state that CFR Passengers started to revamp its rolling stock in recent years by modernizing and buying railway carriages and locomotives. The company’s medium and long-term priorities include: modernizing and buying rolling stock items in order to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers; coming up with new offers and services destined for various market segments and building a new client-oriented attitude for its personnel, one adapted to the competitive environment. CFR Infrastructure has several projects consisting of ongoing rehabilitation works on railway infrastructure, including the rehabilitation of the following railway lines: Bucharest – Simeria, Bucharest – Campina, Campina – Predeal, Predeal – Brasov, Brasov – Sighisoara. Likewise, CFR’s ongoing rehabilitation work on the Bucharest – Constanta line is taking place on three sectors and has a total cost of EUR 508 M. At the end of the rehabilitation works the journey by train from Bucharest to Constanta will last 2 hours and 10 minutes at most, while the journey by train from Bucharest to Brasov will last 2 hours and 15 minutes at most, the MT representatives inform. Moreover, a series of projects on modernizing the railway stations have started, including two large projects: one financed by Credit Suisse First Boston and focusing on modernizing 15 train stations (Ploiesti Sud, Arad, Alba Iulia, Suceava Burdujeni, Focsani, Sighisoara, Drobeta Turnu Severin, Galati, Fetesti, Sibiu, Bacau, Buzau, Brasov, Oradea and Tulcea) and the other financed by the EBRD and focusing on modernizing 5 train stations (Cluj Napoca, Constanta, Craiova, Iasi and Timisoara). The modernization works on the Drobeta Turnu Severin and Fetesti train stations will be completed in 2010. The purpose of the abovementioned works is to improve the conditions for exploiting the train stations, as well as offering services at European standards.

In what concerns the layoffs, the MT representatives state that they are necessary because of the economic crisis. 10,400 people could be sacked, of which 1,370 from CFR Passengers, 1,000 from CFR SA and 8,500 from CFR Freight. 4,700 employees have already retired from the three companies since the start of the year.