Romania To Axe Almost Half its Railways

A sharp fall in the number of people traveling by train and lack of money to improve the lines are among the main reasons behind Romania’s decision to slash the number of railway workers and close almost half of the network.

A government memorandum issed last week on “increasing efficiency in the country’s railway system” includes such drastic measures as eliminating 4,000km of line, reducing the network to just 6,200km.

The line closures will relieve the National Railway Company, CFR, of the burden of expensive investments and repairs and the CFR will use the extra money to update those parts of the rail network that handle the most passenger and cargo traffic.

The CFR is also to reduce the number of personnel. “It is not clear how many people will be made redundant, but I assume around 6,000 people have to be fired,” Stefan Rosanu, a railway consultant for the European Union, said.

The rail network currently employs around 22,000 people on an average monthly salary of around 500 euros.

Romania has also to cut jobs at CFR Marfa railway freight company, according to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, IMF.

An IMF mission is currently in Bucharest until June 16 to conduct the third review of Romania's precautionary stand-by arrangement.

The government is to ask IMF for an exception to the financial agreement, to salvage 1,100 jobs at CFR Marfa, instead of sacking 2,500, as previously agreed. The government’s decision is based on better sales and turnover at CFR Marfa registered last year.

With around 10,777 km of railways, Romania has one of Europe’s largest rail networks, but it is far from the state-of-art infrastructure seen in parts of Western Europe.

Much of the network...