Romanian here. Trains are usually the last resort when it comes to travelling. The arrival and departure times are almost never the ones you see on the boards (you can expect 10-30 minute delays). Also, the insides of most trains haven’t been modernized in years, often times they are dirty and smelly.
This mentality isn’t random or irrational. The wagons are old, the service is bad, missing windows or doors being stuck is common, the toilets are HAHAHAHAHA, and we’ve had several deaths in train crashes in the last decade.
A bus is faster, safer, more reliable, and not more expensive. I support trains in the abstract, as an idea, they are more energy efficient people movers. But our trains, today, as they are, I avoid.
And the main problem: take bribes for letting all sort of trouble makets from agressive drunkmen to beggars.
Last time I dared traveling by train (during night time) in Romania I’ve witness a stabbing attempt between two drunks. They should have been asked to leave the train before things escalated.
Romanian trains are NoGo Zones. Maybe the last no go zones in Romania.You can get robbed, sexual assaulted, pick-pcketed, bullied, infected with god knows what kind of mutated fungi are grouning inside.
Take the bus, rent a car, use Bla-bla Car, but avoid public company trains.
That’s odd. I remember taking a train from Bucharest to Brasov about thirteen years ago.
The train was brand new, quick and clean. I was quite impressed. In fact it was better than most trains in the UK. Has there been any further progress since then?
In Ukraine we have same problem with public transportation in general. There are objective reasons to dislike those but there’s also sentiment about public transportation being designed for lower class.
And its kinda true as current system is made in USSR with mindset that nomenklatura will virtually never use it except for planes and glorious Metro.
Let’s not pretend lack of demand is some sort of problem. The trains travel full in Romania but people hate them because of the low quality of the service.
Quality is low because there’s no incentive to improve while ridership remains so high.
All my Romanian friends and colleagues advised against ever taking the train. Only took it once, from Bucharest to Constanța, and it was nice enough, but I think this is also one of the better lines.
Other times, I directly travelled by bus, which was pretty good, ignoring the sorry state of the restroom by the highway.
idd rather walk that use a Romania train ever again , the difference the trains in Italy and those in Romania is like night day
Well, because they are, duh…
Last time I used train in Bulgaria it caught fire, waited few hours for new train ( less cabins for same number of people ) and had to stay separated from my luggage for good six hours and was late three hours. Somebody has stolen my dirty underwear from side pocket.
Then I had to use train between Brno and Praha and the train was the exact opposite – clean, with toilets, everybody sited and on time.
BULLSHIT
i travel by train about every two weeks, depending on the route they can be as fast as other alternatives and they did upgrade the carts.
it is true that there are problem areas where trains tend to get stuck if it rains.
vandalism is also common but i was never in danger even while traveling in a cart with no electricity/lights a couple years ago(i am a young male so maybe that helps)
12 comments
Romanian here. Trains are usually the last resort when it comes to travelling. The arrival and departure times are almost never the ones you see on the boards (you can expect 10-30 minute delays). Also, the insides of most trains haven’t been modernized in years, often times they are dirty and smelly.
This mentality isn’t random or irrational. The wagons are old, the service is bad, missing windows or doors being stuck is common, the toilets are HAHAHAHAHA, and we’ve had several deaths in train crashes in the last decade.
A bus is faster, safer, more reliable, and not more expensive. I support trains in the abstract, as an idea, they are more energy efficient people movers. But our trains, today, as they are, I avoid.
And the main problem: take bribes for letting all sort of trouble makets from agressive drunkmen to beggars.
Last time I dared traveling by train (during night time) in Romania I’ve witness a stabbing attempt between two drunks. They should have been asked to leave the train before things escalated.
Romanian trains are NoGo Zones. Maybe the last no go zones in Romania.You can get robbed, sexual assaulted, pick-pcketed, bullied, infected with god knows what kind of mutated fungi are grouning inside.
Take the bus, rent a car, use Bla-bla Car, but avoid public company trains.
That’s odd. I remember taking a train from Bucharest to Brasov about thirteen years ago.
The train was brand new, quick and clean. I was quite impressed. In fact it was better than most trains in the UK. Has there been any further progress since then?
In Ukraine we have same problem with public transportation in general. There are objective reasons to dislike those but there’s also sentiment about public transportation being designed for lower class.
And its kinda true as current system is made in USSR with mindset that nomenklatura will virtually never use it except for planes and glorious Metro.
Let’s not pretend lack of demand is some sort of problem. The trains travel full in Romania but people hate them because of the low quality of the service.
Quality is low because there’s no incentive to improve while ridership remains so high.
All my Romanian friends and colleagues advised against ever taking the train. Only took it once, from Bucharest to Constanța, and it was nice enough, but I think this is also one of the better lines.
Other times, I directly travelled by bus, which was pretty good, ignoring the sorry state of the restroom by the highway.
idd rather walk that use a Romania train ever again , the difference the trains in Italy and those in Romania is like night day
Well, because they are, duh…
Last time I used train in Bulgaria it caught fire, waited few hours for new train ( less cabins for same number of people ) and had to stay separated from my luggage for good six hours and was late three hours. Somebody has stolen my dirty underwear from side pocket.
Then I had to use train between Brno and Praha and the train was the exact opposite – clean, with toilets, everybody sited and on time.
BULLSHIT
i travel by train about every two weeks, depending on the route they can be as fast as other alternatives and they did upgrade the carts.
it is true that there are problem areas where trains tend to get stuck if it rains.
vandalism is also common but i was never in danger even while traveling in a cart with no electricity/lights a couple years ago(i am a young male so maybe that helps)