Romania risks losing up to 300 million euros in funding for the Brasov-Sighisoara railway due to unfinished works, European Transport Commissioner Adina Valean said. Big delays on the Brasov-Sighisoara route, the cost of the works exceeds a billion euros.

In the good old days, the fastest trains took less than 100 minutes to reach 128 km, now it takes 3 hours 5 minutes at best due to restrictions and construction sites.

Romania risks losing up to 300 million euros of funding for the Brasov-Sighisoara railway, received under the previous financial mechanism under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), due to the fact that it has not carried out work for the past 7 years, the European Commissioner said on Tuesday in Strasbourg on transport Adina Valean, quoted by Agerpres.

“I can tell you that there is a possibility, a risk of losing up to 300 million euros from the financing of the Brasov-Sighisoara railway, a project that was submitted under the Connecting Europe Facility in the previous financial mechanism, so not the current one, but because of the fact that the work was not carried out, perhaps this money will be lost. There are two options: either this fact is recognized, or certain works are at least partially carried out, so that they are not lost altogether,” Velian said during a briefing for Romanian journalists.

“We discussed before this the phase shift of the Connecting Europe Facility projects, but now the limit has been reached, it cannot be extended any further,” Valean said.

All trains between Brasov and Sighisoara take more than 3 hours for 128 km, some take more than four hours and there are daily delays. It is the most complex railway work carried out in Romania since 1989, but construction will continue for several more years and travel times will be even longer from December 2023.

The route will be significantly changed, and work has also begun on the tunnels, the longest of which is 7 km.