In the last 20 years, I’ve travelled a lot by train, many times in Romania, and I think I could write a novel if I want to. But I don’t want to, because it won’t be a happy, successful one. Rather full of grief, hopelessness and amusement, if you can stomach everything. The main railroad I’ve used, by far, is Bucharest North – Bacău, my birth town, and it is a half-happy story, because it is one of the best you can have, in 2025, in Romania. If you consider by “best”, the ability to travel 300 kilometers in 4 hours and a half, with an Intercity train, which basically has only three stops on the go. Of course, it can get worse. Much worse, hear me out… Or see me out, since I’m just writing haha.
July 2021, to… Șuncuiuș!
July 2021. Because of the pandemic, Primavera Trail Run was not held in March, as it was usually organized, but dragged to July. Of course, running an ultramarathon in the middle of the summer cannot be a better idea than going for it at the beginning of the spring, but this should do, since it is the new reality. The biggest problem was not the fact that I will attend a 50+ kilometers race in mid-July, the problem was the trip to the location of the start: Șuncuiuș. For those who don’t know, this is a village in Bihor county, somewhere between Cluj-Napoca and Oradea, two very allegedly popular Romanian cities, but between which the railway not only it lacks electrification, but it is an ancient one. OK, but to get there, primarily I needed to arrive in Cluj-Napoca. From… Bucharest! This is no way a trip for beginners.
460 kilometers in 10+ hours, between Romania’s two biggest cities
Let me tell you, between the two biggest cities in Romania there are 460 kilometers on land, so normally, in the XXI century, in Europe, you should be able to cover that distance in maximum three hours by train. If we are easy, sort to say. Official time is… 8 hours and 15, or something like that, but it is very seldom to spend under 10+ hours on this way. Absolute nightmare. But no alternative, because going by road is the same, even worse, depending on the angle you see that from, and travelling by air might be an alternative, but not as feasible as it used to. Anyway, the duration is one thing, and the experience itself, in the summer, a whole other topic. Because I wanted to improve my experience as much as possible, I’ve decided to but a round ticket to first class. What can go wrong?
No AC, on your own. At 40+ degrees
Entering the coach, it looked decent, but not convincing. It is hot. Well, it’s July. We are departing. It is still hot. What is happening? Why isn’t the air conditioning starting? “Sorry, it’s broken, doesn’t work!”, a lady who checks the tickets tells me. Wait, what?! I am asking instinctively, since there are, probably 40 degrees Celsius and a very long way ahead. “It is like this for three weeks, what can we do?” I wasn’t in the mood to fight, so I left it like it is, but this is the day to day reality in Romania. Of course I was pissed, and wondered when a person will actually die in a train, because of overheating. In later years, when I didn’t travel to Cluj-Napoca anymore, of course, I heard the same version over and over: “It is too hot for AC to work!” Huh? So then, AC should work when is… cold? Even if CFR has the most employees in Romania, by far, the service is absolutely trash, downgrading heavily from one year to another.
Toilet? What toilet?
Going back to my amazement, I am trying to cope with it, to resist, but of course this is not an exception, the nightmare is getting worse, when I try to get to the bathroom: both were broken, stuffed with piss and dirty of shit. Both ends of the car had the same problem. Try to find a proper location, then… I can’t remember what I did, but luckily I don’t have such a sensitive stomach, and when in need, I can use a broken toilet as well, because in the end, this is how the Romanian trains are dealt with. OK, another reason to increase the stress. A third would have been, but it came partially, because I already knew, before boarding, that in this train there is no option to take something to eat. If you catch it in a hurry in Bucharest North, and don’t have something to eat / drink with you, there is a starvation risk, because you can’t know when you arrive at destination.
Rupea the point when speed nosedives towards 0
Hour after hour, especially when I passed Rupea, a location from which the train can speed at maximum 25 kilometers / hour or so, time compressed in an agonizing experience, and the fact that I was going late – of course you always hope the train makes it in that 8:15 time frame, or close, but it never does – convinced me that there are no chances for me to catch the connection to Șuncuiuș. What to do, when finally arrived in Cluj-Napoca? Simple: buy another ticket! “You cannot get any refund! Buy one, and we will give you the money from the initial missed trip, after you fill a complaint”. Of course I lost the money because of heavy bureaucracy, made specially to torment people at maximum possible. Bought for another Cluj-Napoca – Șuncuiuș train. Well, train is far too much to say.
The moment that saved me from a continuous agony
It was a wreck that went close to 0 km / h from one place to another, and stopped in every small station on the way. It looked like was about to crack, and the smell was unbearable. Of course there was no AC on board, haha. Where do you think you are? I was almost done. My lucky card was that some friends were travelling by car and picked me up from the middle of this mini-journey. I’ve got down from the horror regional train and could breath, after 12 hours or so, good air. What a relief! The next day, I was about to start a 54 kilometers race. But my main fight was done, and the real ultramarathon passed. Of course, I had the way back. It was brutal, again. At least, this time, I was inspired to buy a second class ticket, assuming it will be the same train with which I’ve travelled. How right I was!
In Romania you don’t solve these “minor” problems in two days, weeks or whatever…
I mean it was obvious that the train who goes from Bucharest to Baia Mare, returns on the same path. And I would have been very surprised if that car, first class with no air conditioner, would have been repaired in two days. Of course it wasn’t… And I felt some empathy for people travelling there, because I have passed thru it and, boy, was it hot! It was, basically, the time when I realized it doesn’t really matter at what class you buy a ticket when travelling by train in Romania. And also that was the final moment when I’ve been to Transylvania from Bucharest, by train. I might do one or two more trips, as a survival experience, but for sure for a relaxing vacation I will always prefer to go outside the country. For running events, or just to relax. I wish I can forget this experience, but the level of trauma provoked makes it impossible. But at least it prepared me for what is the worst, when it comes to travelling by train in Romania.
More to come!
And writing about this, I just realized I have so many stories, that it would be too bad to share them in one article. It will remain a long and boring one, which won’t be fully read by anybody. On the other side, if I will share with you separate experiences, one by one, it might make much more sense for you to both understand and get amused about the situation in a European country, which had one of the most developed railroad networks essentially in the world, but which, right now, didn’t invest in modernizing it at all in the last decades. And I am not sure there will be a time in which in Romania a train can travel anywhere with 200+ km / h speeds top, and with at least 150 km / h average speed.
Photo source: hotnews.ro