Transport in Romania

As a densely populated country in a central location in Central-Southeastern Europe and with a developed economy, Romania has a dense and modern transportation infrastructure.

Transportation infrastructure in Romania is the property of the state, and is administered by the Ministry of Transports, 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 Constanta. 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.

History

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.

Railway transport

Map of Romania's railway system

A fast-growing number of Romania's major cities have modern tram or light rail networks, including Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca Oradea. Recently the tram has seen a very big revival with many experiments such as ground level power supply in Oradea.

Roads and automotive transport

Romania's road network with proposed motorways in orange
Speed Limits in Romania based on road type and vehicle category
Main article: Roads in Romania

According to CIA Factbook, Romania total road network is estimated to be 198,817 km long, out of which 60,043 km are paved and 138,774 km (2004) are unpaved.[2] The World Bank estimates that the road network that is outside of cities and communes (i.e. excluding streets and village roads) is about 78,000 km long.[1]

Motorways

Main article: Highways in Romania

Motorways are identified by A followed by a number. As of December 2014, Romania has 684 km of motorway in use, with another 240 km under construction. In recent years, a master plan for the national motorway network has been developed and many works have begun around the country, which will result in significant changes by 2015, and eventually by 2022. Currently under construction is A1 Motorway part of the Pan European IV Corridor. Also under construction are parts of A3 - Autostrada Transilvania, which is the largest motorway project in Europe with a length of 588 km from Bucharest to Oradea (near the Hungarian border). This project is expected to be completed by 2018. This project has been renegotiated with Bechtel which will finish a remaining 64 km that were started. The rest will be reauctioned and as a result of renegotiations with the EU, the remaining segments will receive funds from the EU. This is due to the cancelation of the Bechtel contract which was extremely expensive.

Timișoara–Arad (32 km) and Arad's ring-road (12 km), part of the A1 motorway (Bucharest–Nădlac) are another projects completed in 2011. In the same year, half of Constanța's ring-road was ready.[3]

In order to complete another 100 km of motorway by end of 2010, Romanian Government struggled to allocate the necessary funds for 55 km motorway, part of the Bucharest–Ploieşti motorway (from a total of 62 km). The newest motorways that have been opened are Sibiu ring road (17,5 km) and another 27.4 km from Autostrada Transilvania.

Statistics

According to europaworld.com, in 2004 in Romania there were:

In 2013, an estimated 4,5 million automobiles existed in Romania.[4]

Metro

Main article: Bucharest Metro

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 the Bucharest public transport network with an average of 800,000 passengers during the workweek.[5] In total, the network is 67 km long and has 49 stations.

Proposals to build metros have been put forward for Cluj-Napoca[6] and Brașov.[7]

Air transport

Main article: Aviation in Romania

The air traffic in Romania reached 15.9 million passengers in 2013, 7.1% more than the previous year.[8][9]

The national carrier of Romania is TAROM, a full service airline which flies to 9 domestic destinations and 30 international destinations in 23 countries.

Airports

There are 61 airports in Romania (estimated as of 2006).

see: List of airlines of Romania

Water transport

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.

Ports

See also: Romanian river ports

Waterways

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.

Merchant fleet

The merchant marine has seen a dramatic drop in capacity over the past decade:

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, St Kitts and Nevis 1, St Vincent and The Grenadines 1, Syria 4, Tuvalu 1, unknown 4.

International sea-borne freight traffic

Pipelines

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Romania : transport worldbank.org
  2. ↑ The CIA world factbook :Romania www.cia.gov
  3. ↑ http://www.zf.ro/eveniment/autostrada-spre-litoral-este-de-20-de-ani-in-constructie-dar-va-fi-finalizata-abia-in-2011-5275732/
  4. ↑ The domestic Romanian auto market
  5. ↑ http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/bucharest-metro/
  6. ↑ http://infrastructura.info/?articol=Metrou_pe_sub_Cluj_si_troleibuz_pana_la_Gilau_articol886.html
  7. ↑ http://www.metrou.ro/brasov.php
  8. ↑ European airport passengers up 7% in 2011 to over 1.6 billion at anna.aero
  9. ↑ Romania: Air traffic to grow by 5 percent in 2011, up to 10.7 million passengers at aviationnews.us

External links

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