CFR Călători has a great need for new locomotives, because the old ones are unlikely to last, having an average age of 40 years. The IR train traveled for almost eight hours between Bucharest and Craiova on Wednesday, pulled by three locomotives in sequence, writes Club Feroviar.

In the 90s, trains could take less than 2 hours 10 minutes between Bucharest and Craiova, but now almost all of them take more than 3 hours 40 minutes due to many slow sections. The average speed is 55-57 km/h with only five intermediate stops.

Even the international train IR 78 Bucharest – Budapest takes more than 3 and a half hours. For several days, the real-time train delays that were displayed both on Infofer.ro and on the CFR Călători app are no longer displayed. We can only hope that this very useful option returns soon.

When there are also problems, everything takes even longer.

Well, Interregio train 1597 left Bucharest North Railway Station on Wednesday at 19:30, hauled by locomotive EA 3328. However, after 100 km at Rosiori Nord station on Highway 100, the locomotive broke down.

At the time, the train was only delayed for four minutes due to faulty lines and speed restrictions. However, bringing in a replacement locomotive (EA 772) and joining it to the set added another 50 minutes to the delay.

As travelers breathed a sigh of relief that the locomotive had been changed and hoped to reach their destination an hour late (an extra eight minutes had accumulated between Măldaeni and Mihăești stations due to the lack of tension on the contact line), in Radomirești and locomotive EA 772 broke down, adding another 170 minutes delays in the arrival and coupling of the relief locomotive.

In general, the train was supposed to arrive at the final destination – Craiova station – at 23:12.

However, this only happened on Thursday morning as the total train delay was 3 hours and 55 minutes. In total, he drove 209 km for almost eight hours.