Aerial footage captured by drone flights offers the clearest testament to the massive infrastructure works underway on Romania’s railway network, particularly between Apața and Cața and between Cața and Sighișoara. The project affects the entire north-south transversal axis, nearly 500 kilometres long, stretching from Oradea on the Hungarian border to the capital Bucharest via the Brașov hub. All these interventions are co-financed by EU funds and integrated into Romania’s version of the national recovery and resilience plan, which allocates around 1.8 billion euros for such developments.
On the sections currently under construction, significant civil engineering works are evident, aimed at straightening the historically winding route. New tunnels have been introduced along realigned stretches, along with long viaducts and deep trenches. Although officially described as a line upgrade, the intervention amounts in practice to a near-complete reconstruction, involving some of the largest railway works in Europe.
Once completed, the rail corridor between Hungary and Bucharest will meet European standards in terms of track design, electrification and signalling, allowing freight trains to travel at speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour. The vision, however, goes further, as the plan also aims to enhance and revitalise the railway link to the port of Constanța, Romania’s main gateway on the Black Sea.
The first sections of the broader project to modernise and electrify the over 166 kilometres of the Cluj Napoca–Oradea–Episcopia Bihor railway line were awarded starting in October 2022. Section 4, covering a 50-kilometre stretch from the Hungarian border to Aleşd, was awarded to a consortium led by Webuild and including Pizzarotti and Salcef, for a contract value of 490 million euros. In November 2022, work began on section 3, worth just over 410 million euros, involving the reconstruction of the 52.7-kilometre line from Poieni to Aleşd.
In January 2023, Romanian rail operator CFR also signed the contract for section 2, valued at 295 million euros, with the RailWorks consortium, which is tasked with the complete upgrade of the 36.5-kilometre stretch between Poieni and Aghireșu. The same consortium had previously secured section 1, covering 30 kilometres from Cluj Napoca to Aghireșu. Overall, the works across the various sections are expected to be completed in under four years.
Romania’s investment programme is not limited to enhancing its main north-south axis linking Hungary and the Black Sea. Similar attention is being paid to its connections with Moldova. In early May 2025, Romanian and Moldovan railways signed a memorandum of understanding for cross-border cooperation, including the reopening of the Fălciu–Prut (Cantemir) railway, the electrification of the Iași–Chișinău line, and the modernisation of customs infrastructure at Ungheni.
As part of this agreement, the bridge over the Prut river between the two countries at Fălciu, closed since 1992, will be reopened to re-establish a freight corridor for container transport. The European Commission, for its part, decided in January 2025 to support the full reconstruction of the railway in the cross-border area, aiming to promote trade links in a region now oriented westwards after distancing itself from Russia. Renovation works on the dual-gauge bridge began immediately, and on the Moldovan side, railways will rebuild just under two kilometres of track to the Prut station by August 2025.
Piermario Curti Sacchi
