Timișoara North railway station

Timișoara North railway station Gara Timișoara Nord
General information
Location	2 Gării Street, Timișoara Romania
Coordinates	45°45′4″N21°12′27″E / 45.75111°N 21.20750°E / 45.75111; 21.20750
Owned by	Căile Ferate Române
Line(s)	9 (see below)
Platforms	13
Tracks	14
Train operators	CFR Călători Regio Călători Astra Trans Carpatic
Construction
Parking	Yes
Bicycle facilities	Yes
Accessible	Yes
Architect	Ferenc Pfaff
Architectural style	Neoclassical (original) Modernist
History
Opened	1897
Rebuilt	1976
Electrified	1974
Previous names	Iosefin (1897–1919) Domnița Elena (1919–1944)
Location

Timișoara North railway station (Romanian : Gara Timișoara Nord) is the main railway station in Timișoara and also the largest railway station in western Romania. ^[1] With an average daily ridership of about 5,530 passengers, Timișoara North is one of the busiest railway stations in Romania. ^[2]

History

Iosefin railway station in 1904

The first passenger station was built in 1857 on the site of the former freight warehouse. ^[3] Although small in size, the station provided rail connections to cities such as Arad, Orșova, Bucharest, Reșița, as well as other nearby localities. ^[3] As the number of passengers increased, the old station no longer met the needs. In this regard, a new monumental station was inaugurated in 1897. The designer of the station was Hungarian architect Ferenc Pfaff (1851–1913), whose name is linked, among others, to the stations of Szeged, Pécs, Miskolc, Debrecen, Rijeka, Zagreb, Bratislava, Košice, Vršac, Cluj-Napoca, Jimbolia or Arad. ^[4] Construction costs amounted to almost four million Kronen. ^[4] Its original name was Josefstädter Bahnhof (in German) ^[5] or Józsefvárosi indóház (in Hungarian), ^[6] translated as Iosefin railway station, after the name of the district where it is located. Built in neoclassical style, under the influence of the French Renaissance, the complex was dominated by the main body with three monumental arched gates guarded laterally by two bastions with towers and the facade was decorated with a group of four statues framed by first-floor windows. ^[3] In the middle of the station square was a small park surrounded by an iron fence and planted with conifers. ^[3] By the early 20th century, 49 passenger trains and 30 freight trains transited the new station daily. ^[3] The famous Orient Express stopped in this station starting with 1905. ^[3]

In 1919, after the union of Banat with the Kingdom of Romania and the establishment of the Romanian administration in Timișoara, the station was renamed Domnița Elena railway station, after the wife of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, ^[7] a name it bore until World War II. ^[4] However, most people in Timișoara called it the "Big Station" (Romanian : Gara Mare). On 3 July 1944, the station was heavily damaged by the bombings of Allied aviation, and on the night of 30/31 October 1944, it was bombed again, this time by Luftwaffe, being almost completely destroyed. ^[8] The reconstruction was partially done according to the initial plans. Until the 1960s, the east wing of the old building was still in place, but in 1976 it was modernized, and the architectural style changed radically. ^[9]

In 2020, CFR signed a contract worth almost 4.5 million euros for the rehabilitation and refurbishment of the station. The works mainly aim at restoring the facade, repairing the pedestrian tunnel and arranging the station forecourt. ^{[10] [11]}

Lines

From Timișoara North start nine railway lines, which connect Timișoara to cities located both in Romania and Hungary, and from there to other cities in Europe: ^[12]

• CFR Line 213 (Timișoara–Radna)
• CFR Line 217 (Timișoara–Nerău);
• CFR Line 218 (Timișoara–Cenad)
• CFR Line 310 (Timișoara–Arad). From Arad there are trains to Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Iași or Satu Mare. There is also a line that goes to Budapest.
• CFR Line 900 (Timișoara–Bucharest), part of Pan-European Corridor IV (southern branch)
• CFR Line 918 Timișoara–Buziaș–Lugoj
• CFR Line 919 (Timișoara–Jimbolia) with extension to Kikinda
• CFR Line 922 (Timișoara–Stamora Moravița). The line continues in Serbia, through Vršac to Belgrade.
• CFR Line 926 (Timișoara–Cruceni)

Statistics

As of 2017, Timișoara North serves about 174 trains, ^[2] including domestic trains to the majority of Romanian cities operated by Căile Ferate Române, as well as international trains to Budapest. Trains to Belgrade have been discontinued as of 1 August 2017. ^[13] The train route now only runs as far as the Romanian border village of Stamora Germană in the commune of Moravița, 5 km from the Serbian border.

Public transport

Timișoara North can be accessed by trolleybus, tram and bus: ^[14]

• 🚎 11, 14, 18
• 🚊 1, 8, 10
• 🚌 3, E1, E3

References

1. "North Railway Station Timisoara". Spotlight Timisoara.
2. "Anexa nr. 4. Centralizator fișe observații" (PDF). Consiliul Național de Supraveghere din Domeniul Feroviar. 2017. p. 12.
3. Ivănescu, Valentin (2009). Cronica ilustrată a Regionalei de Căi Ferate Timișoara. Editura Marineasa. pp. 19–20.
4. Both, Ștefan (23 October 2013). "Gara Mare din Timișoara a fost bijuterie arhitectonică. Astăzi este o clădire de tristă amintire". Adevărul.
5. Nubert, Roxana; Pintilie-Teleagă, Ileana (2006). Mitteleuropäische Paradigmen in Südosteuropa: ein Beitrag zur Kultur der Deutschen im Banat. Praesens Verlag. p. 43. ISBN   9783706903400.
6. "Temesvár-Józsefváros". Magyarország vasútállomásai és vasúti megállóhelyei.
7. Barbu, Dinu (2013). Mic atlas al județului Timiș (caleidoscop) (PDF) (5th ed.). Timișoara: Artpress. p. 25. ISBN   978-973-108-553-1.
8. Berinde, Andrei (27 November 2014). "Iunie-iulie 1944: O ploaie de foc se abate asupra monumentalei clădiri a Gării Timișoara". Historia.
9. Dogaru, Viorel (3 July 2016). "A fost odată ca niciodată… cea mai frumoasă gară de provincie!". Banatul Azi.
10. "Gara de Nord din Timișoara intră în șantier. Se schimbă fațada și se amenajează piațetă cu fântână arteziană". Opinia Timișoarei. 15 November 2020.
11. Deaconescu, Roxana (15 November 2020). "Patru firme vor reabilita Gara de Nord Timișoara, cu peste 4 milioane de euro". TION.
12. "Starea economică, socială și de mediu a municipiului Timișoara" (PDF). Primăria municipiului Timișoara. 2020. p. 53.
13. Both, Ștefan (1 August 2017). "De ce au anulat sârbii trenurile care legau Vârșeț și Timișoara? Decizia vine după ce vecinii au renunțat și la proiectul autostrăzii Belgrad și Timișoara". Adevărul.
14. "Acces cu trenul". timisoara-info.ro.