The first Class 101 trains from Altsom have arrived recently in Romania, and I have to say I am 3 weeks late to the party. I can’t explain in words how big this is. This is CFR’s first aquisition of new electric trains in 20 years. Below is a picture with the most common electric locomotives in Romania, the class 4x ones.
A class 40 train of CFR Calatori at Bacau. Picture courtesy of Calin Strimbu.
These look like they belong in a scrap yard, don’t they? A few years ago my parents were shocked at how old the locomotives were and they say that “they looked like they were 100 years old” and I don’t blame them. We even have nearly 80 year old locomotives still in service. I’m not joking. Class 77 trains were produced from 1935 to 1942 and they still USE THEM, though it’s for short routes.
A class 77 train of CFR Calatori at Calimanesti station. Picture courtesy of Stefan Puscasu.
And here are the second newest trains of CFR calatori. Siemens Desiro, AKA Class 96
A graffitied class 96 train of CFR Calatori at Bucuresti Nord. Picture courtesy of Stefan Puscasu.
And here we have the new Altsom trains.
A brand new Altsom Coardia Stream train with a bit of snow. Picture courtesy of Observatorul Prahova
Ever since the 2000s, CFR has started gaining the reputation of being extremely unreliable, with CFR having delays of 4 million minutes (source) in 2022. Yikes. I don’t know if the reason for these delays are rolling-stock related, but I have to say, I hope that’s the case. I also don’t even want to touch on the bathrooms of the passenger cars. Thank God I never had to take a number two in one of these, cause otherwise, I would’ve gotten all of the possible and impossible STDs. I won’t show pictures, it’s gross as hell, but if you are interested, google “veceu cfr”. I am also interested in seeing if it will take less time to get there, as these trains can reach 200km/h, but we have horrible infrastructure. I hope the lines get modernized faster, so I can finally go to the beach in a decent timeframe.