THE EVOLUTION OF RAILWAY TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE IN ROMANIA AFTER 1990

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the physical, economical, and strategic evolution of the Romanian railway infrastructure based on data extracted from EUROSTAT. The timeframe chosen for this study is between years 1990 and 2019, from the fall of the communist regime, through 2007 when Romania became a member of the European Union, until the beginning of the Covid – 19 pandemic. The Romanian railway infrastructure is analysed and compared with those from other European countries. One of the first observations is that the Romanian railway has one of the largest networks in Europe, being placed 2nd in terms of length in year 1990, after Poland. Unfortunately, in contrast to having one of the largest networks, economically it situated at the end of the hierarchy, being one of the most inefficient. Having constant decreasing amounts of transported goods over time, the sector doesn’t have enough cash flow to secure the necessary funds for maintenance and mandatory technological upgrades. The sector is badly managed and cannot sustain itself anymore. The high number of victims each year makes it one of Europe’s most unsafe railway networks and this hinders the level of trust and willingness for collaboration from private entrepreneurs. The private sector should be encouraged to increase the volume of goods transported as well as participate in investments. The Government could even consider a Public Private Partnership strategy to attract a cash infusion into the sector. There is great potential for a positive impact on the country’s economy if the Authorities would implement a strategic investment and development master plan to bring the railway infrastructure to a level of reliability that would attract businesses and stimulate the movement of goods. The geographical location of Romania could accelerate such development since it could be an important logistics hub linking the Black Sea to the Central European market. Empirical results show that the length of railway network is negatively correlated with income and negatively associated with the volume of transported goods in Romania over the period of 2004-2019. It is apparent that for this sector the size of the current network should be sufficient, but quality should be improved, since this is the element that enhances operation safety and operation characteristics such as speed and volumes of goods transported. The paper includes recommendations for public policies regarding the transport infrastructure sector.