| Transport in Romania |
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Transportation infrastructure in Romania is the property of the state, and is administered by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Constructions and Tourism, except when operated as a concession, in which case the concessions are made by the Ministry of Administration and Interior. [1]
The country's most important waterway is the river Danube. The largest port is that of Constanța, which is the second largest port at the Black Sea.
With over 13 million passengers Bucharest Airport is a major international airport and European transportation hub. Air travel is used for greater distances within Romania but faces competition from the state-owned CFR's rail network. Public transport is available in most areas.
Romania has a system of large, navigable rivers, such as the Danube, Olt and Mureș that cross the country.
The first important human improvements were the Roman roads linking major settlements and providing quick passage for marching armies.
A fast-growing number of Romania's major cities have modern tram or light rail networks, including Bucharest, Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca and Oradea. Recently the tram has seen a very big revival with many experiments such as ground level power supply in Oradea.
According to the CIA Factbook, in 2012 Romania had a total road network of 84,185 km, out of which 49,873 km were paved and 34,312 km unpaved. [2] Romania's National Institute of Statistics (INS) 2019 transport report stated that total road network is 86,391 km: 38,166 km (44.2%) modernized roads (92.8% with asphalt pavements of heavy/medium type and 7.8% with concrete), 21,365 km (24.7%) with light asphalt road clothing, 17,831 km (20.6%) cobblestone roads and 9,021 km (10.5%) dirt roads. [3]
Motorways are identified by A followed by a number. As of December 2022, Romania has 995 km of highway completed with more under planning or construction. In recent years, a master plan for the national motorway network has been developed and approved by the European Commission in July 2015.
Currently the A1 motorway, part of the northern branch of the Pan European IV Corridor, is open on 456 km. Under construction are the segments Curtea de Argeș—Pitești (30 km). Margina—Holdea (13 km) and Boița—Curtea de Argeș (73 km) have yet to start construction. It has a total length of 576 km.
The A2 motorway was the first motorway in Romania opened on all its segments, with a length of 205 km. It links Bucharest to Constanța (junction with A4)
The A3 motorway, which is the largest motorway project in Eastern Europe with a length of 588 km from Bucharest to Oradea (near the Hungarian border), is open on 173 km. The segment Chețani—Câmpia Turzii (15.7 km) is under construction. All segments between Nădășelu and Oradea have been tendered by the end of 2020. The remaining sections are still in the planned phase.
The A4 motorway is operational on 22 km, from Ovidiu to Agigea (also known as the Constanța bypass). Another 45 km are planned, from Agigea to Vama Veche (at the border with Bulgaria).
The A6 motorway is also part of the Pan European IV Corridor, but near Lugoj it starts as the southern branch, that connects the cities of Sofia, Istanbul and Athens. It has a length of 270 km, of which 11.4 km between A1 and Lugoj bypass are open.
The A7 motorway starts from the A3 (near Ploiești), linking it to the region of Moldavia and further to the Ukrainian border. From its planned 450 km, 16 km are open near Bacău, which serve as the bypass for that city.
The A10 motorway is the first motorway which links two motorways in Romania: A1 (near Sebeș) and A3 (near Turda). It has 70 km, and since 2021, it has been operational on its entire length.
The A11 motorway is a 135 km motorway, the second to connect A1 with A3 this time between Arad and Oradea, of which a 2.4 km stretch near Arad called the Arad bypass is open.
According to the Romanian "Direcţia Regim Permise de Conducere şi Înmatriculare a Vehiculelor", in 2017 there were 7,635,000 vehicles (of which 1,320,230 in Bucharest), [4] and 8,900,000 in 2019. [5] It is estimated that by 2021 there will be more than 10 million registered cars in Romania. [5]
In 2016 62% of road fatalities occurred in urban area, [6] Romania has 1189 fatalities in urban area, that is 60 killed in urban area per million inhabitants, or 3.2 times more than EU average of 19. This makes Romania the EU member state with the most fatalities per million population, 42.9% more fatalities than the second country, Hungary. [6]
Bucharest is the only city in Romania which has an underground railway system, comprising both the Bucharest Metro and the light rail system of the Regia Autonomă de Transport București. Although construction was planned to begin in 1941, decades of delays meant the Bucharest Metro was only opened in 1979. It now forms the backbone of Bucharest public transport network with an average of 800,000 passengers during the workweek. [7] [ unreliable source? ] In total, the network is 71 km long and has 53 stations.
Proposals to build metros have been put forward for Cluj-Napoca [8] and Timișoara.
The air traffic in Romania reached 20.28 million passengers in 2017 [9] and 21 million passengers in 2022. [10]
The national carrier of Romania is TAROM, the largest Romanian airline is Blue Air while Wizz Air has the largest share of Romania's air transport market. [11]
There are 20 airports in Romania (estimated as of 2006).
Romanian companies operate over 700 ships of which 400 are registered in Romania. Romania's 110 shipping firms employ 12,500 personnel at sea and 15,500 on shore. Each year, 105 million tonnes of goods and 1 million passengers are transported by sea. Marine transport is responsible for 52% of Romania's imports and exports.
As of 2006, there are 1,731 km of navigable waterways of which:
In 2004, according to europaworld.com, 19 million passenger-km and 4 billion ton-km were carried through these waterways.
The merchant marine has seen a dramatic drop in capacity during the first decade of the 21st century:
These include: 13 cargo ships, 1 passenger ship, 2 passenger/cargo ships, 2 petroleum tankers, 1 roll-on/roll-off.
50 other ships are registered in other countries: Cambodia 1, Georgia 15, North Korea 6, Malta 10, Marshall Islands 1, Panama 8, Sierra Leone 2, Saint Kitts and Nevis 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Syria 4, Tuvalu 1, unknown 4.
Transport in Bulgaria is dominated by road transport, despite nearly half of all paved roads belonging to the lowest category of roads. As of December 2015, the country had 829 kilometers of highways.
In 1995, the main means of transportation in Moldova were railways and a highway system. The major railway junctions are Chișinău, Bender, Ungheni, Ocnița, Bălți, and Basarabeasca. Primary external rail links connect the republic's network with Odesa on the Black Sea and with the Romanian cities of Iași and Galați; they also lead northward into Ukraine. Highways link Moldova's main cities and provide the chief means of transportation within the country, but roads are in poor repair. The country's major airport is in Chișinău.
Switzerland has a dense network of roads and railways. The Swiss public transport network has a total length of 24,500 kilometres and has more than 2600 stations and stops.
Transport in Serbia includes transport by road, rail, air and water. Road transport incorporates a comprehensive network of major and minor roads. Rail transport is fairly developed, although dual track and electrification are not very common. Water transport revolves around river transport while air transport around country's three main international airports.
Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport is Romania's busiest international airport, located in Otopeni, 16.5 km (10.3 mi) north of Bucharest's city centre. It is currently one of the two airports serving the capital of Romania. The other is Aurel Vlaicu Airport. The airport covers 605 hectares of land and contains two parallel runways, both 3,500 meters long.
Avram Iancu Cluj International Airport is an airport serving the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Initially known as Someșeni Airport, it is located 9 km (5.6 mi) east of the city centre, in the Someșeni area, which is now within the Cluj-Napoca city limits. The airport is named in honour of Romanian revolutionary Avram Iancu.
The Danube–Black Sea Canal is a navigable canal in Romania, which runs from Cernavodă on the Danube river, via two branches, to Constanța and Năvodari on the Black Sea. Administered from Agigea, it is an important part of the waterway link between the North Sea and the Black Sea via the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal. The main branch of the canal, with a length of 64.4 km (40.0 mi), which connects the Port of Cernavodă with the Port of Constanța, was built in 1976–1984, while the northern branch, known as the Poarta Albă–Midia Năvodari Canal, with a length of 31.2 km (19.4 mi), connecting Poarta Albă and the Port of Midia, was built between 1983 and 1987.
Public roads in Romania are ranked according to importance and traffic as follows:
Romania's tourism sector had a direct contribution of EUR 5.21 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018, slightly higher than in 2017, placing Romania on the 32nd place in the world, ahead of Slovakia and Bulgaria, but behind Greece and the Czech Republic. The total tourism sector's total contribution to Romania's economy, which also takes into account the investments and spending determined by this sector, was some EUR 15.3 billion in 2018, up by 8.4% compared to 2017.
Bucharest has the largest transport network in Romania, and one of the largest in Europe. The Bucharest transport network is made up of a subway network and a ground transport network. Although there are multiple connection points, the two systems operate independently of each other, and are run by different organisations (the subway is run by Metrorex and the ground transport network by Societatea de Transport București. The two companies used separate ticketing systems until 2021, when a new smartcard was introduced alongside the old tickets, which allows travel on both the STB and the Underground.
Blue Air was a Romanian low-cost airline headquartered in Bucharest, with its former hub at Henri Coandă International Airport. It was the largest Romanian airline by scheduled passengers flown. In 2017, Blue Air carried over 5 million passengers, a 40% increase over the 3.6 million passengers flown the previous year. As of September 2022, Blue Air served 75 scheduled destinations in 21 countries.
DN1 is an important national road in Romania which links Bucharest with the northwestern part of the country and the border with Hungary via Borș. The main cities linked by DN1 are Bucharest, Ploiești, Brașov, Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Cluj-Napoca and Oradea.
Oradea Airport is an international airport located 5 km (3.1 mi) southwest of Oradea in northwestern Romania, Bihor County, near one of the main road and rail border crossings to Hungary. Its location near the European route E60 and the future Transylvania motorway as well as the county's high tourist potential have led to a double digit growth of passenger and cargo traffic for the past two years.
European route E 81 is a road part of the International E-road network. It begins in Constanța, Romania and ends in Mukachevo, Ukraine. The road is 956 km (594 mi) long.
The Port of Constanța is located in Constanța, Romania, on the western coast of the Black Sea, 179 nautical miles (332 km) from the Bosphorus Strait and 85 nmi (157 km) from the Sulina Branch, through which the Danube river flows into the sea. It covers 3,926 ha, of which 1,313 ha is land and the rest, 2,613 ha is water. The two breakwaters located northwards and southwards shelter the port, creating the safest conditions for port activities. The present length of the north breakwater is 8,344 m (5.185 mi) and the south breakwater is 5,560 m (3.45 mi). The Port of Constanța is the largest on the Black Sea and the 17th largest in Europe.
The A3 motorway is a partially built motorway in Romania, planned to connect Bucharest with the Transylvania region and the north-western part of the country. It will be 596 km long and will run along the route: Ploiești, Brașov, Făgăraș, Sighișoara, Târgu Mureș, Cluj-Napoca, Zalău and Oradea, connecting with Hungary's M4 motorway near Borș.
The Bucharest Ring Motorway, termed A0, is a motorway ring in construction around the city of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It is intended to be the outer ring to the existing Bucharest Ring Road.
Controlled-access highways in Romania are dual carriageways, grade separated with controlled-access, designed for high speeds. There are two types of highways, motorways and expressways, with the main difference being that motorways have emergency lanes and slightly wider lanes. The maximum allowed speed limit for motorways is 130 km/h (81 mph), while for expressways the limit is 120 km/h (75 mph). There are no toll roads, but a road vignette is required.
Transferoviar Călători (TFC), a subsidiary of Transferoviar Grup, is a private railway operator from Romania that has as its main activity the public passenger transportation that is assured on 7 non-interoperable lines as well as on interoperable infrastructure. These routes are served with short to medium haul light rolling stock, diesel multiple units consisting of two or three carriages. Units can be coupled together to cope with rush hour services.
Max Bögl is a German multinational major construction company based in Sengenthal, Germany.
