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 have been unified from January 2007, when the Bucharest Metropolitan Transport Board established and a single ticketing system.
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[edit] Bucharest Metro
- 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
Surface transport in Bucharest 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 wheelchair-accessible buses and trolleybuses.
[edit] Buses
- See also: List of bus routes in Bucharest
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 December 2006, more than 400 Citaro buses have been delivered, currently running on routes 104, 122, 123, 124, 126, 131, 136, 137, 232, 268, 300, 301, 312, 313, 331, 335, 336, 368, 381, 385 and 601. As of November 2006, the fleet is made up of the following models:
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 HESS bus on Route 205 |
 RocarAutodromo bus on Route 236 |
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 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
- See also: List of trolleybus routes in Bucharest
Trolleybuses supplement buses on the RATB network, which operates 20 trolleybus lines, mainly on high-usage routes. During the 1990s, the fleet was updated with modern trolleybuses manufactured by Ikarus, in light blue and yellow livery, which have acoustic station announcements and digital display screens. These trolleybuses now make up the majority of the fleet. In early 2007, wheelchair-accessible Irisbus Citelis trolleybuses were introduced on routes 61, 69 and 91.
[edit] Fleet
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 Ikarus 415T trolleybus on Route 70 |
 RocarAutodromo trolleybus on Route 91 |
 Rocar trolleybus on Route 90 |
 DAC trolleybus on Route 97 |
[edit] Trams and light metro
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.
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] Airports
Bucharest has two international airports:
- Henri Coandă International Airport, located north of the Bucharest metropolitan area, in the town of Otopeni, Ilfov. Currently the airport has one terminal divided into three inter-connected buildings (International Departures Hall, International Arrivals Hall and the Domestic Flights Hall - at the ground level of the Arrivals Hall - ). The International Departures Hall consists of 36 check-in desks, one finger with 10 gates (5 equipped with jetways), while the Domestic Hall has an extra four gates. Today's International Arrivals Hall is actually the old Otopeni terminal, while the new Departures Hall, including the finger and the airbridges was built and inaugurated in 1997. A second finger with 7 jetways is under construction and a new building terminal on the east side is in project phase. The airport received 3.513.576 passengers in 2006 and the airport is expected to handle 4.5 million passengers in 2007.
- Aurel Vlaicu International Airport is situated only 8 km north of the Bucharest city center and is accessible by RATB buses 131, 335 and Airport Express 783, RATB tramway 5 and taxi. An extension of Line M2 of the Bucharest Metro to Aurel Vlaicu International, which will link it to the Main Train Station and the larger Henri Coandă International Airport, was approved in June 2006 and is currently in its planning stage.
[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.
[edit] Notes
- ^ (Romanian) Parc autobuze RATB (RATB bus fleet), BucureştiTransport (fan site by Dr2005)
- ^ Governing programme of Adriean Videanu, General Mayor of Bucharest
- ^ Simona Tudorache, Taxi a iesit cu Politica in strada, Curierul Naţional, 23 October 2004.
- ^ Rehabilitation of Urban Roads, Phase II, from the site of the General Mayor of Bucharest, Adriean Videanu
[edit] External links
