Europe's WORST First Class? Romanian Long Distance Train Review!
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- Опубліковано 20 бер 2022
- Today, we take a CFR Călători InterRegio long distance train from Timișoara to Cluj-Napoca.
Date of Travel: October 2021
Class of Travel: First Class
Rolling Stock: Various
Operator: CFR Călători
Service type: InterRegio
Train Number: IR1834
Origin: Timișoara, Romania
Destination: Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Cost of Ticket: 98.95lei (£16.80, $22.55, €20)
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Oddly about 10 years ago I travelled on a CFR sleeper from Bucharest to Budapest (1st class I admit) and it was fantastic: comfortable, clean and a polite attendant,.
It is still the same quality that being sent abroad. Dylan has a video from a first class journey from Budapest to Timisoara
Well, that the same now,. This guy take a different route (internal)
I think whoever came up with this "first class" traveled on Thameslink first class on a 700 and thought "Yes, this is the answer"
At least thameslink first class is better than the "ironing board" standard class seats
The rear section is *DECLASSIFIED* and I use it where possible
😹
I love how in Europe, they try shoving first class into everything but in the US, most it’s non existent
@@The4905 it's offered to try and raise extra revenue through higher fares, but it rarely raises anything substantial
Most revenue comes from season ticket sales, hardly anything from leisure travel and season ticket sales are only from a minority of passengers
@@Keithbarber it's bigger but they have the same comfort rate
8:30 this 'rather strange' layout was typical for Germany's InterRegio coaches, particularly Aimz, Bimz and their relatives.
This coach was a former Aimz261 in Germany ;-).
And it probably hasn't been refurbished since
@@EdVonPelt On the contrary, we did upgrade all the Aimz / Bimz stock back in 2006-2007 with air-co and 220 V electric plugs for IT devices. Some of the German railfans praised us for the improvement. Some of the coaches, depending on the region, have been slightly refurbished with new seat coverings
@@EdVonPelt They been actually refurbished.
@@mureseanu976 There was no real upgrade done on these Aimz/Bimz stock except the retrofitting of air conditioning units in those carriages that were missing a/c. Even the seats are of the late 1980s DB IR vintage, designed for short and medium-haul working, and not providing much confort. Most interiors are over 30 years old, and are in no way fit for working any service, let alone a 16-hour long journey... At most, these should be relegated to 2nd class working on local lines, if not scrapped altogether...
Thats the trains we railfans love.Old school.🙃
I made a similar comment last week, but the more off the beaten track you go the more interesting the videos become. I'd certainly watch you do Frankfurt to Paris, or Brussels to London, but not half as closely as this one.
A couple of points from a Brit who has lived in Romania since 2010 and used trains since UK driving licence expired in July 2016. First, I have used Interregio trains from Sighișoara to Alba Iulia, Brașov and Vișeu de Jos (up in the far north west of the country). Very often there were declassified First class carriages in the consist which I found to be clean, roomy and comfortable. Perhaps your First class carriage was a declassified one but they'd forgotten to remove the First class stickers 😁
Secondly, a lot of infrastructure modernisation is in progress between Brașov and Simeria. Track is now continuous welded rail, curves have been realigned and tunnels either built or in course of construction to avoid large hills which, when the Hungarians first laid out the route in the 19th century, they skirted round with long deviations following river valleys. New 160kph electric multiple units are being built to speed up the journeys. All the stations between Sighișoara and Copșa Mică have been completely rebuilt with raised platforms instead of concrete blocks at rail level as has Sibiu station which I travel to at least once a month from Daneș which is the nearest station to the village where I live.
tl;dr It takes a life time to modernize a single railway route in this country. In 1000 years we'll probably finish upgrading to present-day Germany/Switzerland standards.
What type of work do you do in Romania?
@@gigikontra7023 I'm retired and have been since coming to Romania.
@@746laurie I think we're starting not to like that foreigners use Romania as a cheap retirement destination. They take up resources from the young generation. It's alright because you're still from an allied country, but people are becoming a bit nervous about the whole trend.
@@gigikontra7023 I'm sorry you feel that way. My pension is all spent in the local area. I go to Sighișoara once a month for food shopping, mainly fresh meats but also buy fresh food, vegetables, cakes, milk etc almost every day from the excellent little shop in the village. About 10% of the houses in the village are empty, are available for young people and are low priced. I also help out some of the poorest with money for medications whenever I can.
I am very much part of the community.
17:44 wow great to know that DB Regio offers a long-distance connection to Cluj-Napoca 😆
You had a toilet with an actual toilet you can sit on. Get back to me when you've travelled Romanian 1st class and found there's nothing but a hole in the floor and a highly corroded floor and when you get up into the mountains you suddenly go through tunnels and realise there isn't actually any lights in your '1st class' carriage. 🤣
Shh don't ruin the surprise 🤣🤣🤣
we always love train reviews like this
It’s funny to see coaches I traveled with in my childhood in Germany. Good recycling 😉
Wow, that was an abysmal first class. I was worried about how second class would fare until you walked through, Dylan, and second class definitely appears much nicer. (And like you, I appreciate the satisfying sounds of the clickety-clack.)
The murals in the Timisoara station are lovely and the terminal building at Cluj-Napoca is just stunning. Would love to see your footage from the city!
Thanks for sharing. See you on Friday!
Agreed!! Second class definitely looked better than first class. Also, the toilet was really disgusting.
@@cherylkavanagh3387 If it was in the UK, that "1st Class" coach would have been condemned years ago, and long since fed to the shredders at Newport Sims Metals. Tbh that's where that coach, as well as the broken down diesel, deserves to go.
@@TheSpotify95 If Romania was anywhere near as wealthy as the UK, I'm sure it would've replaced that stock by now. As it stands though, Romania is definitely among the poorer countries in Europe, so having the money to do such improvements isn't a given.
I agree! I was dreading what I'd find in 2nd before opening the door to find it was actually alright.
@@bahnspotterEU It's more the fact that the CFR (Romanian Railways) is very poorly run. In fact, the fares are pretty high and they should be making quite a decent profit to reinvest into newer stock. But because it is a state company they employ too many office workers that basically do nothing, so most of their earnings go into wages. It's quite a shame, but on some of the mainlines (Bucharest to Constanta, Bucharest to Brasov) they have added newer or refurbished cars.
Well that was entertaining purely due to how bad it was! I was expecting you to say that it cost you like £5 or some such really low price but it is actually quite pricey for what you get. A journey on a railway this bad must surely be a distress purchase for anyone other than an enthusiast. Makes the UK railway seem like the gold standard to aim for!
That makes the EMR Class 360s seem modern and feature packed! :p
@@TheSpotify95 when on greater Anglia I thought the 360 first-class was worse than standard class - head rests were really hard
@@Keithbarber Nothing has changed since then - except that 1st Class has been declassified, and none of the 360s have had any sort of internal refurbishment. Given that Wellingborough and Corby previously had Intercity services, and we now have the 360s, I can see why people would drive if they had the choice.
At least the old first class sections are 2+2, not the horrid 3+2 that the rest of the train has.
Agreed!
Sort of...
POV: _A Romanian get to UK_
*_He sees the trains_*
Romanian: *What the...What are these? Trains?! Are you serious? Nope, that can't be trains*
And a ticket in Romania at first class still cost around £20-£30 for....this...
Thank you again for sharing such an interesting experience and particularly when you had no idea what was going on when the train stopped! The cities looked very majestic with the architecture and equally worth the trip.
Your expectations were much too hight for a simple InterRegio service. I think for Romanian standards that was a quite nice train.
It was average for an InterRegio but quite acceptable for a „Hunger Train” (Iași-Timișoara service is populary known with this name). This Timișoara-Iași service is one of the longest route in Romania and one of the slowest and usually had the oldest and the worst shaped cars from the IR fleet. Probably is the same now but sincerly I expected worse cars and travel conditions. The rest of the route from Cluj to Iași is fully electrified but passes mostly through small cities and towns.
What are the " Romanian standards"?
Well Dylan, I travelled several times via Romania in the nineties and this train is paradise compared what we experienced. In the midst of winter, -15 or -20 degrees we travelled in carriages without light, doors that could not be closed because the toilet water was frozen and had leaked into the corridor etc etc. It was adventurous but I never saw in my life in any country such dismal conditions in a train.
Beautiful video .. I just love the Eastern European railway experience! It might not be modern from a Western European point of view, but the interior doesn't appear to be broken or filthy in any way.
Hey there Dylan.
Just discovered your video and I quite agree with most of what you said.
I am passionate for travel with trains in Romania, and do it every 2-3 weekends, also have a UA-cam channel with trips arround most of the country, objective is finishing all of it.
My take on this first class is the following:
It is very poor in my mind, but it has compartments and you can get down the window, for most of the time, so you can enjoy the sound of the train, traveling on the railway, and enjoying the scenery, with the wind blowing.
I am addicted to these sounds, and besides the poor conditions, I still love to travel with the train, solely for the enjoyment of the sounds, sensation and retro feeling, with the windows down.
Happy to come accros your channel and will be keeping an eye on future contents. BIG LIKE!
Cheers, 😉👍
Patrick
Thank you for an interesting video. Makes our trains here in the UK seem luxurious by comparison.
17:43 nice to see a former German class 628.4 still in its original livery in the background. I found these to be great regional trains and after watching your video it seems they may be the best travel option in the CFR's network
Funnily enough those are not even CFRs trains, they are used by a private company called Interregional Calatori
Niiiice, I loved travelling in those carriages when they were in service as Interregios in Germany.
As much as the rail infrastructure does suffer in Romania, I take the glass half full approach which is if everything were standard and clean and sterile, what a boring world it would be! The beauty of travel is taking in places for what they are and going with the flow. You just happened to get a doozy lol but again that's half the fun. I have had many trips on CFR and just put headphones on and watch a movie. I will say with summer coming up, its not pleasant to get a wagon with no AC on a scorching day. If you want a real throw back to the past with carriages frozen in time and heating still powered by coal fired furnaces in each carriage, take the trip from Bucharest to Chisinau on the 'Prietenia' or friendship train.
This occasionally happens with ČD too, though. Let's say you catch a fast class train sporting an Aee145 and a Bee238. As the latter is ex-EuroCity coach, it's actually more comfortable and modern than the first class. This was the fast connection between Brno and Prague through Havlíčkův Brod just last year, btw.
In Bulgaria our trains are probably worse but, on my opinion, those trains are meant to be taken not for the comfort but rather the experience and sometimes the stunning views you may see along the way. Also, old-fashioned trains are sometimes a great way to socialise with people. We stumbled across an Argentine solo traveller around the Veliko Tarnovo region last year and ended up having a great chat and a couple of beers along the way to Sofia. Either way, trains in this part of Europe need a lot of cash and work. Cluj is a very beautiful city indeed. Very nice and enjoyable video :)
I really enjoyed this video, especially as I knew nothing about Romanian railways. The station mosaics at the start of your journey were stunning and Cluj railway station looked really attractive. I liked the colour scheme of the loco that crossed in front of you after you left the train. Although not luxurious, I would not mind travelling in these coaches. The FIrst Class coach seemed quite spacious actually.
Great trip. It's sad to see some Double Decker car was abandoned and rusty when approaching Cluj Napoca. Also that traffic on station with plenty of classic locomotive, feels back into the past.
Loving the ancient Thunderbird loco and the two that make a cameo at the end. The last one sounds great
Try some of the ironing boards they supply on class 700 Thameslink trains.
Those old coaches are still used on some routes in Germany! I was on one on the IRE route from Hamburg to Berlin back in 2019. The ones there seem to be much better-maintained, though (and that was sold as as second-class product). Also, that train had wifi.
That sunrise sure was spectacular and beautiful. 😊
reminds me of old german IC's who are sometimes still used mostly at night etc. The red decor in 1st class is remarkable. In germany they degraded them to 2nd class. So you have 2 2nd classes in one train. One with the slightly comfier 2+1 configuration and one with more modern 2+2 configuration. The weird seat configuration is somehow familiar... but in 2nd class the seats are way more uncomfy...
Wow I just realized now why CFRs Class 60 looks so close to the ubiquitous Swiss engines from the same era. They were built by SLM and Brown-boveri in Switzerland.
They were built between 1960 and late 70's by the Electroputere plant in Craiova Romania under Swiss licence. The bulk of the production was made in the 60's, after 1970 were built mostly electric locomotives under ASEA (Sweden) license, now class 40 and 41 (mostly class 40 were built). The diesel engine (2100 HP, under Sulzer licence) was built in Reșița Romania. Electroputere plant was sold, destroyed and demolished in the mid 2000's, now we have a mall in its place. But we have a new locos and EMUs producer in Craiova, privat owned, named Softronic. New CFR electric locos class 47x are built by Softronic.
@@andreiaiosif2534 Un răspuns perfect!
I like your vocal comments. Lots of information for those who are less familiar with our hobbies.
If you think 30-76 Aeem is a bad example of 1st class, try using a 19-76 Ameet (DWA 1992 - 1994, modernized 2019 - 2022 and counting) open saloon coach. I firmly believe that 19-76 Ameet offers worse seating than the 30-76 Aeem ex-DB Regio, the seats are simply too narrow to follow a UIC regulation for 1st class, the back rest is uncomfortable, yet they "brand" it as a "long distance" alternative. The "natural" advantage in 30-76 Aeem are the openable windows, provided the air-conditioning system fails, whilst in a failed 19-76 Ameet you will be "boiled" like potatoes in a pot during the summer. 😆
Regarding Sulzer 60-1213, it did recieve a "local" TLC at Jibou / Satu Mare sheds back in 2018, but the quality of the job was rather appaling and the result lasted less than expected.
Hello Dylan. I watched your video with shame. I know the result right of the beginning. The explanation is that, we, Romanians love car rides...look on the streets..we have nice cars...that s why in CFR was not invest enough money,and the management is full of crooked people. I was from Bucharest to Vienna 19 hours....with my car I make 12..and cheaper. Welcome to Romania...a very beautiful country.
Nice timing as I am off that way very soon, so I shall mentally prepare myself.
It's a 50/50 as something much better might come along.
@@DylansTravelReports Svilengrad to Sofia is a train journey you should make sometime.
Love to see you in my hometown Timișoara, sadly our train stations it's not up to a city like ours.. I've been on this train to Cluj in the past with the politehnica football supporters. Is on my bucket list to go all the way to Iași.
We are starting to improve our infrastructure, but it's a lengthy process.
Hope you will visit soon our country again.
I also recommend that you issue an official complaint to cfr călători highlighting the problems you've encountered.
Greetings from Timișoara!
Nice video . Thanks
I pleased you are having bad experiences on trains. Too many vloggers just portray the good points and if there are inconveniences they display a sense of entitlement. You however show warts and all in a matter of fact fashion. Well done
That was an interesting experience! Their idea of First Class is as bad as the Australian XPT on its thousand km journey from Sydney to Brisbane with only light beer to soften the awful blow of nearly 16 hours in a barely reclinable seat!
Back to your train, and looking at your First Class seats, it looks like compartment cars having been gutted, which is a shame as I like having my own compartment. Second Class looks so much better! On another note, with the trains, where possible can you show us the loco/s? I'm not keen on Romania, but I am on the whole, keen on seeing more of European and UK trains as well as something of the cities and towns you visit. 🙂
Someone evidently had the thought "Two is higher than one, so Second Class will get the better, cleaner coaches."
Also... your train breaks down in a remote Transylvanian village and you can't even be bothered mentioning Dracula? What a golden opportunity lost.
Dracul lived further south in the soouh carpathians
Personally I'm glad no Dracula references were wheeled out. Transylvania is a real place where normal people live, and while the history and stories of Dracula are certainly interesting, it gets tiresome hearing them mentioned any time Transylvania is brought up.
In 1983 I did this journey overnight in the opposite direction and by a different route (we got off at Lugoj as we were heading for Craiova). I seem to remember we had a seat part of the way, but for the rest it was sitting on my luggage in the gangway. Not much if any sleep I can tell you. Also I remember the double decker coaches between Timisoara and Arad.
NB: 'Oradea' is pronounced something like 'ora DAY uh'.
AMAZING REVIEW DYLAN MATE
Thanks!
With trains like this, it's not comfort that is the reason of travelling by them 🥰
Yea it’s a special, but fun experience
Really good report! I've after posting my first ever trip report on my channel, and I was wondering if you could let me know on what I could improve on with rather basic editing and recording gear. It would be much appreciated Dylan.
Very nice and funny video! 😁
If you will return to Romania make sure to explore the eastern part of the country (so cities like Suceava, Iași, Bacău and Galați), in order to experience something different from Western countries.
If you take regional instead of interregional trains you can see the train running with the doors open and I think that is something which you can see only in Romania:)
Thanks! 😃
Oh boy, you really drew the short straw on this coach. I've regularly traveled between Cluj and Iasi by train as a student and the coaches on that route are abysmal. Some of the second-class coaches are even worse since there are 6 seats In a compartment and you are all facing each other, which means no possibility of moving your legs and no leg space. And the first-class coach is barely better. The only worse coaches in use are older still and seat 8 people in a compartment. Yes, 8 people. Legroom is 0 and no AC. Traveling for 10-11 hours in one is a test of patience.
The best coaches are on the Cluj-Bucharest direct route, not the one that you took in the previous video. The first-class seats are air-powered seats that can recline and arranged in a 2+1 config. And the second class seats are also like that just smaller and in a 2+2 config.
Fun fact. The Timisoara-Iasi route is the second-longest at 16 hours. The longest is Satu Mare-Mangalia, which runs only in the summer as a direct connection to the seaside and takes 19 hours. Usually having around 10-12 coaches and packed to the brim.
Sorry, but this report is typical of 'Englishman abroad'. The train has an IR number so does not claim to be Inter City which would be IC. It is unfair to expect a Romanian guard on a train which is only semi-fast to speak English although Inter City guards generally do. I found Romanian trains to be reliable if somewhat elderly & it is not unusual for a failure in the U.K. to take 2hrs to rescue. Romanian fares are extremely cheap compared to U.K. & are walk-on fares, not only available by booking weeks in advance as in U.K. A little more fairness to a country still recovering from years of Communism would, I am sure, be appreciated!
💯% agree with your comment! Sometimes you need to look at available service from the pov, of the country you are travelling in & not blindly compare with well established ones!!
Great trip report
Thanks!
The car you were travelling with, was an ex-DB Interregio Wagen, which is a pity, actually judging from the tragic conditions on board, concidering that the Interregio service in Germany had been an excellent one.
That car hit me with nostalgia.
Timisoira station really reminded me of Cardiff Central in the 80s prior to refurbishment
Breakdowns, bad carriages and a beautiful country make for interesting videos. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed!
I wanted to go home from Cluj Napoca, and I had 2 options: go from Cluj to Baia Mare, but it had an 80 minutes delay. I chose the other direction, from Cluj to Oradea. It was quite OK, except the fact, that during my trip, I saw a locomotive, which was stopped, because of a fire. Unfortunately, CFR has very old locos, and they are not safe at some point. In the summertime, it is even trickier.
Oh, boy... during my Erasmus year in Timisoara I had to take a lot of trains as they were almost free for students and that was a challenge, A/C all out whether in summer or winter, no restaurant car at all and the journeys took ages 😂 conversely, they were pretty scenique .
The only good service I found in Romania was Astra Transcarpatic which is a private company if I'm not mistaken, nice trains, nice compartments, you could buy stuff onboard, even take a shower and the price was decent, CFR, well, it's always there.
True, but Astra runs trains only in the Arad area and their long route is Arad-Bucharest only.
´I travelled frequenty in this cars,, when used in German Express trains, and I liked them.. Formerly they had a yellow/green interior. I m glad they have got a new carreer!
Well, at least the scenery was great! 🙂 In Romania, we have a joke about the CFR trains' speed, saying "Who needs TGV, when you won't have time to admire the view, given that speed" 😁
2:20 "Maybe I've missed these..."
The stations, as many in Romania, without lifts or ramps for wheelchairs: _we've got away this time_
nice one again dylan shame about the train, but the views outside where great. brian d.
Well, in Romania we have a saying "It could be worst" (as in try it in winter time). I'm sorry for your experience.
That train reminds me of my Inter-railing in the early 80s. Might even be the same train!
Bine ca aveti voi in tarile voastre conditii bune! Se fac eforturi sa fie asigurat acest transport! Aratati doar lucruri rele ..pacat! Cred ca nici la voi nu s-a ajuns dintr-o data la conditiile care le aveti!
Îți spun sincer, au condiții de rht.
Took a train from Targu Mures to Cluj-Napoca in October last year and while the comfort wasn't very good, it was on time. I didn't have anything planned for that afternoon, so I didn't mind the slow pace and stopping at many small stops along the way. It can actually be quite soothing, with the right mind-set. However, IMO, an advantage for travelling longer distances by train is to get there faster than a car. My trip didn't do that, and neither did this trip.
Dylan, my first ever connection with a Romanian rail waggon was in 1990 from Prague to Dresden onboard the legendary "Pannonia Express" that with connection from Athens travelled all the way through the capitals of old Socialist Europe, Sofia, Buchuresti, Budapest, Bratislava, Prague, Berlin(east), Warsaw. During that journey I was appointed a seat in a Chechslovak car but I went around the train as much I could, in the Romanian car the flushing of the loo was out of order aswell as only one hinge of the door working, and in the Bulgarian car I managed to get into even the "throne" was missing so not even one of those hooking loos, just a hole in the floor, I was appointed a seat in a GDR car but had to walk around of course. Were all the outer doors closed during your trip? I travelled from Buchuresti to Timisoara 1992 and several outer doors were open. Passing Orsova I heard the shelling from ex. Jugoslavia and saw several brigdes bombed and blocking the Danube. Sorry to remind all of the viewers of the film about how one brave country of Europe suffers right now but having been less of 200 metres from a war on the other side of a river you get a little feeling.
Romania seems a very loyal NATO ally. It has American defense equipment deployed in its territory.
On most romanian trains, 1st class is a trap. Sometimes is much more worse than 2nd class.
At 1:03 - there is a door on the left which give access to a model railway permanent exibition. It is free of charge to visit and is the biggest diorama in Romania :)
Yup, indeed. But sometimes should be okay.
For me the joy of train travel is being on a train, the scenery, and being able to relax and read a book. I have travelled in Romania, and although the trains are old and a bit run down, I have not had what I would call a bad trip. I have always had a seat, although once in winter I was in a compartment that the heating didn't work in. As for power and wifi - it is not necessary. It is nice to have, but otherwise I watch the scenery or red. The worst trip I have had is from London to Edinburgh on LNER on a Bank holiday weekend. Packed, and was sitting on luggage in the vestibule until Newcastle...
The abandoned coaches shown, pulling into the final destination, sums up this railway I think. Also, did the train driver wave at you at 18:20 perhaps?
I doubt it, as I had my GoPro discretely on a clip on my backpack.
Super video! Great train ride in romanian style! Good work! Thumbs Up & Subscribe 🚆🚂🚊😉👍
Greetings from Oradea, Romania
Andrew
“The only good thing (besides getting off)…” Dylan, tell us what you really think 🤣🤣🤣
The layout of the coach you were traveling on reminds me of similar former DB coaches used (rented? leased?) by Dutch Railways NS probably some 8~10 years ago if not longer ago, now all set aside and possibly/probably scrapped (or maybe sold to Romania?)
Funny that this video has been added at the time when CFR signed a contract for Alstom Coradia between Cluj and Timisoara. :-)
It is not electric between Cluj and Timisoara. Probably, if you go on the other line, but that is longer.
That was depressing. You would have to really want to get to that city in order to make that trip. It’s not often you hear a traveller say that the best past of the trip was getting off the train.
Totally agree on the part of _"the best past of the trip was getting off the train."_ In September 2018 I did my first (of so far two) trips on the Eurostar. I did London to Paris, which in itself was ok for Second - or ""Tourist" Class. When I got off at Paris Gare Du Nord I saw every type of law enforcement there is, all heavily armed, around the station. I'm not out to break the law, only to photograph and video trains for my own interests and channel, but having had a "heads up" on French police and their supposed attitude towards photography of transport, I was looking for a way to get back on that Eurostar and go back to London!!!
@@tobys_transport_videos Wow. That must have been disconcerting. Most of us don’t expect a law enforcement “welcome” at our destination.
@@ozgirl45 "Disconcerting" is one way of putting it! When you see heavily armed soldiers with massive guns in their hands and big German Shepard dogs at their side as you walk along the concourse. Them there's the issue of sirens constantly wailing! It put me off Paris big time! Milan was a bit more relaxed while Munich was fantastic!!!
An odd trip it is when second class is better than first. Everything about it was so out of date. at least it was a beautiful day with nice countryside passing by.
Hello Dylan - greetings from Poland.
I lived in Romania from March 2005 to November 2015 in Pitesti and Constanta. I travelled many many times on CFR trains. NEVER use first class. All the coaches are just like the one you travelled in. They're all ex German or Austrian and are all about 25 to 30 years old. The open plan second class coaches are far more comfortable. Sanitory conditions in Romania are generally very poor. Once you live there, you get used to it! From memory, I don't recall ever been delayed as long as you were.
Did you meet the "Control Officers" ? Nearly every train at some time has a ticket check by the guard/conducter and then by officious bodies who are looking for none ticket holders.
May I suggest you try the journey from Bucharest Nord to Constanta. Also the trip from Bucharest Nord up to Brasov is lovely scenery but rough track. Thirdly, The Blue Arrow service from Bucharest Nord to Pitesti is a bit of fun. Country lines on a relatively modern train.
Thoughourly enjoyed your video. Looking forward to the next one.
I think you're being a bit optimistic with 25 to 30 years old (which is the age of some of the newer coaches in daily Imtercity service in Germany). I'd say at best this coach is from the 70s (and probably older), and the interior would be from the early 90s. It'd be helpful to know the top speed of this coach, as 200kph would indicate a car from the 60s or 70s, and 140kph would mean early 60 or 50s.
I didn't come across them, but I know that fare dodging is a bit of a problem in Romania so I believe there were some about.
Not all the coaches are the same. There are some coaches built by Astra Vagoane Călători. Both 1st and 2nd Class and are quite okay.
The inter regeo seating layout is a great design
Well, eBay recommended me this episode instead of the "official" April Fool's one... ;p~
I honestly thought you were going to move to 2nd class!
Best feature: PULL DOWN WINDOWS.... instant nostalgia. : )
Sad but true At least the scenary is fantastic between Oradea and Cluj
I just started watching youre video and let me tell you we have the " blue arrow " train you can see on back on Arad station it is a new train starting in 2008 but our railways dose not suport the high speed so the train is limited to 110 kmh yes mainly becose CFR or RR if you want to translate it dose not do a grate effort to modernise the traks or the old trains just the blue arrow is new this is mainly why we dont travle by train like we use to
Started as a DB compartment coach. In the 90s they created a brand called InterRegio for semi-fast, cross-country services, and refitted said stock plus some ex-DR coaches much like you experienced. Tbh it's been further downgraded to its present form, although they were kind enough to keep those seats! The undercarriage seems to have been filled out, though. The IR brand has long since vanished.
thank you
Romanian here, I'll chip in with some reasons CFR really went to shit.
One of them is Communist heritage: from one side it was overdeveloped in order to cope with Ceausescu's plan to send almost everything Romania produced in the 80s to pay off the IMF loans taken in the 70s, so not only there were a lot of freight wagons that now rust in rail yards (like Dej Triaj being an example), but also they were overloaded and led to the quick degradation of lines on the freight corridors.
Things kinda ran from the Communist inertia in the 90s up until the real degradation being clearly obvious starting the 2000s where travel times shot up dramatically, due to the post-1989 political chaos and the lack of political interest in investing into CFR. Rolling stock began slowly disappearing and almost all of the current passenger wagons are DBs from the 1980s, but who are apparently "modernised" in Romania in the early 2010s, but a lot are fundamentally flawed by design or outright ignored, such as 2nd class saloons (and the most hated wagons by a longshot) not having capable A/C if occupancy goes over 80% during summer months. At the same time there are sleeping cars (not couchettes, sleeping cars) selling places at €50 one-way on routes like Bucharest-Cluj (pricing is done by distance and speed) who did not see any modernisation at all realistically since the 1980s DB usage (same wooden bed frame, narrow as fuck beds, narrow as fuck corridors, noisy interiors, 1 outlet per compartment).
Secondly the politics are at fault as well: in the early 2000s Romania wanted to privatise state business as much as possible, but it wasn't that easy with CFR, and that was constantly proven to be true, as it is still a strategic asset and it has remained so since the 1920s. At the same time with good ol' corruption a lot of the little money budgeted for CFR began disappearing with fictitious investments, fake invoices, grossly overvalued contracts, bribery and making some assets (like historic buildings) magically disappear from its ownership after the break-up in the 2000s into CFR Calatori (passengers), CFR Marfa (freight) and CFR Infrastructura (infrastructure). One of the former ministers of transportation (who also administrates CFR) back in 2018 let out an ounce of honesty and said that the bureaucracy is severely clogged (decisions can take even 3 years to be made) and also "there are no votes coming from railways, so that is why the Parliament doesn't bother either investing in us". He is partially right when there are more votes to be garnered from motorists who woo at new highways, newly paved roads and shit like that, but the potential financial losses to having really uncompetitive rail transport is immeasurable.
The only major push that was done in terms of investments was with the approval of Via Carpatica as an Interimarium measure, and since this concerned national and regional security to connect both the ports of Constanta and Gdansk in Poland with reliable and quick rail infrastructure, so did some problems disappear and travel times on the routes that were part of the plan halved from what they used to be.
Thirdly it is a mammoth that needs a restructuring from the bottom-up: there is a lot of heritage infrastructure which is no longer representative of reality (like how Suceava has 2 train stations, Isaccea and Burdujeni, while Isaccea was the former border station with the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and huge rail yards for industry that used to exist during Communism which no longer is (like the aforementioned Dej Triaj yard). To no one's surprise companies avoid to work with CFR for freight transport (resorting to private operators and even trucks) because of the painfully slow delivery of freight wherever it is taken (for example the Ford plant in Craiova used DB Cargo Romania in order to send their cars to Western Europe and the average speed for the 500km journey to the Hungarian border was 11km/h due to shit infrastructure and priorities given to passenger trains). Firstly it would need to cut up and sell to scrap all those rusting freight wagons littered all across Romania, use the money to invest in better rail immediately, raise up prices and get on going with a proper investment plan in order to both keep up the infrastructure with the reality of today's world and also upgrade the aging fleet of still-functional wagons and locomotives. Currently Electroputere Craiova is making some amazing locomotives sold to Swedish state railways, while the most recent loco modernisations have been done in the early to mid 2010s and only on a few electric locos, vast majority of them still being the same ones that got out of the factory in the 1970s.
Thank you very much for the information. The beauty of Romania makes up for any inconveniences, and the people are super friendly. Salut from Poland.
99% true with some corrections: 1. Ițcani (Suceava Nord CFR official name), not Isaccea. Isaccea is on the lower Danube (Tulcea county) without rail access. 2. The vast majority of old wagons were sold and scraped now. 3. Electroputere disappeared for about 15 years now. New locomotives class 47x are built by Softronic not Electroputere and are new (under 15 years old) but there are only a small part of the fleet, old class 40 being the most). 4. DB cars were really modernised from 2004 onwards by Atelierele Grivița but they are quite old now. They are way better than old Astra Arad ones from the 60-80's which they replaced (I remember the travel with a 1966 built 2nd class Astra car from Cluj to București in 2004. They had PVC covered benches not individual seats. On Accelerat not on Personal (Accelerat and Rapid were merged into InterRegio lately, Personal became Regio and have now the best cars than ran on Accelerat 20 years ago, the blue double deck ones at least on main electrified routes).
Those seats also looked dirty. I really expected you to say "steam engine" instead of diesel...LOL
Welcome to Romania!
What a random train. Second class looked really nice where as First, a bit of tip!
Second class is cheaper and usually better. Only the seats are narrower but the comfort is the same or even better sometimes.
Bald and Bankrupt must be seething with envy ... worth taking the Bucharest to Chisinau train for a really Soviet experience
Bald and bankrupt, the guy that almost got convicted for rape?
I never thought I'd say it, but a railroad in my country is better than a railroad from another country.
That was quite interesting, mate. Terrible train, lovely country. How was Cluj?
It sure does seem like Romania is the place where trains go to die! That one scene just before arriving at the station of Cluj-Napoca - all those deserted and rusting trains....very sad sight. But I have to say, that it was a real blast from the past to see the saloon-style carriage - that's something I haven't seen in years!!
You won’t believe but most trains in Switzerland are not WiFi enabled too…really strange but it’s real.
Enjoyed the review. Perhaps you were a bit harsh about the track alignment although some was jointed 8:55
In the UK the track is often poorly aligned and can be a bit alarming at speed e.g. between Woking & Clapham Junction. No wonder that Siemens had to bear in mind the poor track quality when offering new trains about 20 years ago.
Will you review the Eurostar sometime?
Reminds me of a greater Anglia 321 class, for first class you get.... A lovely GA branded headrest cover. :/
The train you choosed is named the "hunger train". I travelled with it milion times as a child. You should have chosen the sleeping car or second class. Way better.
Next time in Cluj let me know...
Sounds like metro line 12 in Paris!
If you're unlucky you can get a similar seat with MAV, and they'll sell the seat as a table seat too.
Some countries have really benefitted from EU membership since 2004. The country I live in certainly did. But it looks like Romania, which joined only three years later, has still a long way to go.
Mine certainly benefited. Pity it decided to leave though!
@@philroberts7238 Memories, unfortunately, are short. Wishing you all the best.
@@SeverityOne And to you!
How do wheelchair users get to the platform?
Well, at grade. They would be escorted by an authorized employee over one of the service crossings at the end of a platform. This is the case at many European stations that haven't yet been adapted for step-free access.
That is, of course, assuming that the train itself is suited for wheelchair transport. This would often involve a mobile loading device pushed to the platform to elevate the passenger and load them into the train. You repeat this in reverse at the destination.
Excellent 💖💖💖💖💖💖🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🍷🍷🍷🍷🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂👍👍👍👍👍👍🥂🥂
Hello Dylan - greetings from Poland.
Despite this video, I've decided to travel to Constanta in Romania from Warsaw, Poland by train on 11/04/22.
Warsaw to Budapest Nyugati is 104.19zl, Budapest Keleti to Bucharest Nord is 127.80zl and Bucharest Nord to Constanta is 32.75zl. Total is 264.74zl = 46.12GBP using current exchange rates. Total journey time is 31 hours. All seats have to be pre-booked. First leg is IC131 PKP Intercity. Second leg is train 847 CFR and third leg CFR but no train number available.
This compares to 404.50zl flying LOT Warsaw to Bucharest. I'm not good at planes so the train is OK for me
Booking through PKP, there are no couchette or sleeper facilities nor do they know if any catering is available!
I'll let you know how I get on.
Hi mate, Keleti to Gara de Nord, you should have both couchette and sleepers especially if its the evening train overnight. The catering car can be hit and miss, some trains it is attached and you can get a decent breakfast in the morning amid early rising smokers and drinkers as smoking is permitted lol. Buch to Constanta just seated but not that long just under 2.5 hours. Enjoy your ride. I'm English and live in Romania so use rail a fair bit when not driving.
Thanks so much for the information
I'm fairly sure 11:55 is Alesd station in Chistag.
Also the mountain trails are verry difficult to have a high speed train , cose you need to dig and make tunnels through mountains and that will destroy the Eco system , but on flat "platou" the trains reach 160 km/h also some can go to 180 Km/h
Very interesting. good to know that second class is better than 1st, dont complain, or the guard might come around and bite you in the neck !