Launched more than three years ago, the rail link between Gara de Nord and Henri Coanda Airport in Otopeni has won the trust of Romanians and trains are often full. From time to time, traffic on this line is disrupted, and people run the risk of being late for their flight. analysis Railway Club shows some flaws. There is a solution, but the work has not started.

Trains run at intervals of 40 minutes. The journey from the North Station to the airport takes 21 minutes and 25 minutes in the return direction. The ticket costs 5 lei.

National rail company CFR SA is trying to patch up the project and do what should have been done more than three years ago. There are too many single-row sections, and everything would be much better if a two-span diagonal was installed.

• The Gara de Nord – Airport train shows us how Romania knows how to carry out important infrastructure works

On April 26, a CFR Călători train consisting of two coupled Desiro locomotives broke down at the PO Parc Mogoșoaia station. This train was 45 minutes late, but also because of it, the Transferoviar Călători train coming from the opposite direction, from the airport to Bucharest, was also 45 minutes late because it had to wait at Mogošoia station for the CFR train to pass. Travelers left “stuck”.

It is approximately 19 km from Gare de Nord to Henri Coanda CF airport station. The line is double only from the Northern Railway Station to the traffic stop (Hm) Pajura, at km 5+398 and from the Mogoșoaia CF station (km 13+071) to the branch to the airport, at the former Odăile stop (km 17). A total of just over 9 km out of 19 km.

In parallel with the construction of the new railway from Odeile to the airport arrival terminal, the Mogoshoaya-Baloteshti railway line has also been doubled, so we have about 4 km of double track to the branch. Between Mogoșoaia and PO Parc Mogoșoaia the line is double and continues like this for more than 2 km, but trains to the airport CANNOT use only one line.

The explanation is simple: to use the second wire (line 301K, Mogoșoaia-Post Giulești), you need to lay a diagonal of two cables between them. What was not taken into account when the project of the train to the airport was created and what was “discovered” later, when it turned out that the traffic section had become congested, since there are also Regio trains on the Bucharest-Urzicen route, as well as goods.

Although steps have been taken and documentation submitted to implement “new diagonals between km 8+800 and km 8+900”, work has not started and it is not known when this will happen.

After the completion of the works, trains will run on a double line for an additional 4 km. Practically, the trains of the opposite directions will have to “cross” not at the CF Mogoșoaia station, but 4 km further in the direction of Bucharest, which will reduce the waiting interval.

Other work is blocked by expropriations: a new 1.9 km long line is to be built in the Pajur area. Between the place where the diagonal track is installed (km 8+900) and the Pajura stop (5+398), the line is simple and largely passes through a tunnel, also known as the Pajura tunnel.

And for this part of the route there is a solution, but it was not applied when it should have been. It consists in creating a connection with line III Chitila – Bucharest in the area of ​​the Bucharest sorting depot. In practice, the tunnel will remain one-way, in the direction of Bucharest to the airport, and in the other direction, trains will run on line 301K, but this requires the construction of this new line of almost 2 km, and still needs to be expropriated.