High speed rail network in Romania

Concept development As for the network of high-speed rail, the Romanian National Regulation no. 203 of 2003 concerning the construction, development and modernisation of national and European transport, updated in 2005, called for the development of the high-speed rail network after 2015, depending on agreements with neighbouring States. In this regard, the Ministry of Transport has initiated and developed multiple initiatives at international level to start the development of the Budapest - Bucharest – Constanta high-speed line as an extension of high-speed axis Paris to Budapest.

In November 2007, the Governments of Romania and the Republic of Hungary adopted a Joint Declaration on the high-speed rail line Budapest - Bucharest - Constanta. Official letters to ministries of transport from Hungary and Austria were submitted in September 2008. The first trilateral meeting of the Romanian-Hungarian-Austrian Experts Working Group on the pre-feasibility study took place in 2008. In 2010, it was announced that the Danube Strategy will include a high-speed rail project on the Vienna - Budapest - Bucharest – Constanta line.

The construction of high-speed line in Romania was also on the agenda of talks among representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure in the revision of TEN-T in 2010-2011.

EU Regulation No. 1315/2013 set out the new high-speed line from RO/HU border – Arad – Timisoara – Bucharest – Constanta.

The status of preparatory work

No complete feasibility studies have yet been conducted on the new line. In April 2019 EUR 3.1 million were allocated from the Hungarian side for a feasibility study on another section from Budapest to Cluj.

Parameters and location of the line

The main features of the high-speed lines planned in Romania are shown in Table see bellow and in Figure.