Transport in Bucharest

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Bucharest boasts the largest transport network in Romania, and one of the largest in Europe. The Bucharest transport network is made up of a metro network and a surface transport network. Although there are multiple connection points, the two systems operate independently of each other, are run by different organisations (the metro is run by Metrorex and the surface transport network by RATB) and use separate ticketing systems, often making transfer between the systems difficult. Due to this, the two transport systems are expected to be unified from 2007, when the Bucharest Metropolitan Transport Board will be established and a single ticketing system will come into force.

1 Bucharest Metro
2 Surface transport
3 CFR Trains
4 Road network
5 Sea transport
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Bucharest Metro

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Main article: Bucharest Metro

Bucharest has a fairly extensive subway system consisting of four lines: M1, M2, M3 and M4, and run by Metrorex. In total, the network is 63km long and has 45 stations, with 1.5km average distance between stops. It is one of the fastest ways to get around the city.

[edit] Surface transport

Long line of RATB trams

Surface transport in Romania is run by Regia Autonomă de Transport Bucureşti (RATB) and consists of an extensive network of buses, trolleybuses, trams and light metros. The RATB network is one of the most dense in Europe, and the fourth largest on the continent, carrying about 1.7 million passengers daily on 101 bus lines, 30 tram lines, 3 light metro lines and 20 trolleybus lines. At times, however, it does suffer from severe crowding.

RATB is a reasonably efficient and a very frequently-used way of getting around Bucharest. As with the Metro, the system is going under a period of renewal. Highlights of the renewal include the introduction of a new light metro service, aside from trams, as well as new rolling stock, especially for trolleybuses.

[edit] Buses

See also: List of bus routes in Bucharest

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The RATB bus network is the most dense out of all the transport types in Bucharest. In fact, RATB's advertisements state that one can never be more than five minutes walking distance from a bus stop. There are 116 bus lines (see Bucharest bus routes), most of which operate in the Municipality of Bucharest. However, there are also a few bus lines which provide services to the towns and villages which border Bucharest, in Ilfov county, and whose populations usually commute to Bucharest for work. In mid-2005, the lines that linked the city to the peripheral area were licensed out to independent transportation providers, but in early 2006, they were placed once again under the control of RATB due to a wide range customer complaints about the private operators.

[edit] Fleet

RATB's bus fleet is made up of more than 1000 vehicles.^[1] The fleet is currently in a process of renewal, with the older Ikarus and DAC buses, built before 1989, being phased out of use. In December 2005, RATB completed a contract for 500 new Mercedes Citaro low-floor, wheelchair-accessible buses. The first 12 of these buses were delived in June 2006, with 15 due to be delivered each week from then. As of November 2006, more than 300 Citaro buses have been delivered, currently running on routes 104, 122, 123, 124, 126, 131, 136, 137, 232, 268, 301, 312, 313, 331, 335, 336, 368, 381, 385 and 601. As of November 2006, the fleet is made up of the following models:

Mercedes Citaro bus on Route 131	HESS bus on Route 205	RocarAutodromo bus on Route 136	DAF SB220 bus on Route 282
Rocar De Simon U412 bus on Route 601	Iveco TurboCity-U 480 bus on Route 221	Rocar DAC 122 UDM bus on Route 221	Ikarus 260 bus on Route 268

[edit] Trolleybuses

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A typical trolleybus in Bucharest, on line 70

Trolleybuses supplement buses on the RATB network, which operates 20 trolleybus lines, mainly on high-usage routes. Trolleybuses were the target of RATB's modernisation plan in the 1990s, and about 75% of the fleet is now made up of modern trolleybuses manufactured by Ikarus, in light blue and yellow livery, which have acoustic station annoucements and digital display screens, similar to those found on the metro network, even though they are not wheelchair-accessible. RATB is also progressively phasing out its old DAC-type stock and replacing it with new Ikarus and Rocar-Autodromo trolleybuses, which also have modern facilities.

[edit] Trams and light metro

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RATB operates a complex system of trams and light metros in the Municipality of Bucharest. Beside tens of tram lines, there are currently three light metro lines (numbered 32, 35 and 41), all of which run in the western part of Bucharest. Light metros use more modern rolling stock than trams and also run on separate designated corridors for faster travel times. The light metro service is expected to be expanded by upgrading existing tram lines to light metro status. The next line to be upgraded is expected to be Line 21.

[edit] Fleet

V2A tram	V2S tram	V3A-93M tram	V3A-93 tram
V3A-H tram	Tatra T4 tram	Rathberger tram

[edit] CFR Trains

Bucharest is served by a commuter railway network operated by CFR, the Romanian national railways. Although commuter trains no longer serve national routes, commuter train services are bad to say the least. "Personal" commuter trains are extremely slow (a 60 km route is completed in 2 hours), uncomfortable, sometimes filthy, and hard to come by even for a local, as they operate either from the main station, Gara de Nord or from 6 other stations, some of which small and obscure (Gara Basarab, Gara Obor, Gara Chitila, Gara Progresu, Gara Titan and Gara Pantelimon). They are meant to service major factories and industrial platforms with workers, and generally run early in the morning and in the afternoon. Commuter trains currently run to Olteniţa, Giurgiu, Urziceni, Lehliu Gară and Titu. These are not meant to be used for travelling for the whole route, but only from a close-by village to the city. There are also weekend tourist trains from Bucharest to Snagov, starting either at Gara de Nord or Gara Baneasa.

There are no urban trains (similar to RER lines in Paris) in Bucharest, even though a commuter ring railway in currently in construction around Bucharest, to supplement the Bucharest Metro.

See also Căile Ferate Române

[edit] Road network

The city's municipal road network is centred around a series of high-capacity boulevards (6 to 10 lanes), which generally radiate out from the city centre to the outskirts and are arranged in geographical axes (principally north-south, east-west and northwest-southeast). The principal and thus most congested boulevards are Calea Victoriei, Bulevardul Unirii and Mihai Bravu Boulevard, which is the longest in Bucharest and forms a sort of semicircle around the northeastern part of the old district. The city also has two ring roads, one internal (Mihai Bravu is part of it) and one external, which are mainly used for cars that bypass the city as well as trucks, which aren't allowed in the city centre. Aside from the main roads, the city also has a number of secondary roads, which connect the main boulevards. In the historical city centre, particularly the Lipscani area, many streets are cobbled and are classified as pedestrian zones.

A busy Bucharest boulevard at night

The city's roads are usually very crowded during rush hours, due to an increase in car ownership in recent years. Every day, there are more than one million vehicles travelling within the city limits.^[2] This has resulted in wearing of the upper layer of tarmac on many of roads in Bucharest, particularly secondary roads which are now used in an equal amount, this being identified as one of Bucharest's main infrastructural problems. The pothole problem is notorious enough to have inspired a song by the band Taxi with a chorus "Cratere ca-n Bucureşti, nici pe luna nu gaseşti!" ("Craters like in Bucharest you won't even find on the moon").^[3] However, in recent years, there has been a comprehensive effort on behalf of the City Hall to boost improvement of road infrastructure, mainly by resurfacing and widening roads, and repairing footpaths. According to the City Hall's development plan, nearly 2000 roads are expected to be rehabilited by 2008.^[4]

Bucharest is one of the principal junctions of Romania's national road network, which links the city to all of Romania's major cities as well as to neighbouring countries such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Ukraine. Romania's two motorways currently in operation, the A1 and the A2 which links the capital with the country's ports and seaside resorts on the Black Sea.

[edit] Sea transport

Although it is situated on the banks of a river, Bucharest has never functioned as a port city, with other Romanian cities such as Constanţa and Brăila acting as the country's main ports. However, the Danube-Bucharest Canal, which is 73 km long, is currently in construction and is around 60% completed. When finished, the canal will link Bucharest to the Danube River and, via the Danube-Black Sea Canal, to the Black Sea. This transport corridor is expected to be a significant component of the city's transport infrastructure and increase sea traffic by a large margin.