In late 2023, news that direct trains from Otopeni Airport to Ruse (Bulgaria) will start this spring on line 102 (via Gradishtea), which is due to resume. While this sounds good, such trains are far from realistic for several reasons.

Too many obstacles and delays

There would be a demand for direct trains from Ruse to Otopeni, since Sofia airport is far from Ruse, there are fewer connections to the airport of the Bulgarian capital, and Otopeni has flights to several destinations.

Ruse to Sofia is 400 km and there is only one direct train a day that takes more than six hours, so a two hour train between Ruse and Otopeni would be ideal. There is currently one train a day between Gare de Nord and Ruse via Videle, but it takes almost 3 hours and is sometimes late.

Trains in Bulgaria do not have a lower average speed than in Romania, because the Bulgarians also have large parts with a speed of 50-60 km/h. The difference is that Bulgarian long-distance trains have many stops: for example, the Ruse-Sofia train has 17 stops over 400 km.

Trains have been running since the end of 2020 between the North Station and Otopeni Airport (Henri Coanda), people are used to them and the degree of occupancy is high. For several reasons, including technical ones (a simple line, a station with only two lines in Otopeni, no trains), direct flights from the airport to other cities in the country have not been launched and are not planned.

The Bulgarian press wrote that from the spring, direct trains can run from the Ruse – Otopeni airport on line 102, which will be reopened after the completion of the works in Gradishtea.

But even after the trains return to the direct route Bucharest – Comana – Giurgiu, it is unrealistic to believe that they will be able to cover approximately 115 km somewhere between 90 and 120 minutes.

The work at Grădiștea is not finished, and it is clear that passenger trains will not run before the beginning of summer on the old direct route Bucharest – Giurgiu, and we should not expect a short journey time.

The direct line 102 Bucharest – Giurgiu was never high speed, and even in the best periods the trains did not take less than 70 minutes, but most often the fast and accelerated trains took 80-90 minutes as well.

These trains to Ruse cross the border, so they have to stop a lot, and from Giurgiu to Ruse there is still 17 km, where the average speed is below 50 km/h (the only train goes from Giurgiu to Ruse in 25 minutes).

So it’s hard to believe that the Otopeni – Ruse train, if it exists, would be able to get there in less than 2 and a half hours at best.

The site romaniaferoviara.ro also wrote about possible Otopeni-Ruse trains, which explained some technical aspects.

An interesting post was also published by the Pro Infrastructure Association, which dismantles this railway “doughnut” and explains an important aspect: the problem is that there is no more capacity for additional trains to Otopeni. Efforts are being made in this regard: there is a feasibility study that has designed a new bridge at DNCB to increase the predictability and number of connections to Otopeni.

Here is the API post

Railway donut Ruse-Otopenia in 80 minutes.

The mass media of Bulgaria and Romania recently spread an unrealistic story about the Ruse-Airport Otopeni train. Bulgarian journalists launched an imaginary race between Ruse and the North Station in 50 minutes. They also “found” an operator who had chosen a state-of-the-art Alstom Coradia Lint diesel engine, which he falsely credits with a top speed of 160km/h.

The speeds actually allowed by the railway infrastructure are much lower. Before the collapse of the Hradištia bridge in 2005, the distance between North Bucharest and Ruse was covered in 110 minutes. Even after the recent renovation of the line, the Ruse-Gara de Nord journey time will remain roughly the same.

Neighboring press added 30 minutes to the duration of Rousse-Gare de Nord to gain time to Otopeni. But for the hypothetical Ruse-Otopeni race with the appropriate infrastructure settings, it is not necessary to stop at the North Railway Station, the train can go from Kyazhna directly to Mogoshoai. A direct connection to the airport takes only 10 minutes longer than to the North Station. You can imagine a “triangle”: Ruse-Otopeni-Gara-de-Nord-Ruse.

The problem is that there are no more opportunities for additional trains to Otopeni. Efforts are being made in this regard: there is a feasibility study that has designed a new bridge at DNCB to increase the predictability and number of connections to Otopeni.

Bulgarian journalists also mention the term: March 2024. At the earliest then (but most likely later) the TRIALS on the Bucharest-Giurgiu line, which has not run for 18 years, will just begin! It is still a long way from the introduction of cross-border passenger rail service. It is also necessary to obtain subsidies, and this is again a long process.

Obviously, we support such a connection plus the modernization of the Bucharest-Giurgiu lines (which already has European funding – we are waiting for the tender) and the Nord-Otopeni station to reduce the travel time, which makes such a service even more attractive. But we have to be realistic about the technical challenges, the money needed and the timing of implementation.