New Romanian Train Operator to Launch Bucharest-Iași Service
A new private Romanian train company will soon launch a service connecting Bucharest with Iași and Suceava, using comfortable Danish IC3 trains.
New Bucharest-Iași/Suceava train service
The new private railway company, called Ferotrans TFI, aims to enhance services in eastern Romania along the main line from Bucharest to the cities of Iași and Suceava in the northeast of the country.
According to the local Iași newspaper Ziarul de Iași, the company is currently working on drafting the timetable for the new train service.
Businessman Dumitru Anchidin, the majority shareholder of Ferotrans TFI, stated that he plans to operate both a morning and an evening train between Bucharest and Suceava, as well as between Bucharest and Iași.
The railway station in Iași. ©AndyBTravels
Competition
Both routes are currently operated solely by CFR (Căile Ferate Române), Romania’s state railway company, with the fastest train taking 6 hours to complete the route between Bucharest and Suceava and 6 hours 11 minutes for the route between Bucharest and Iași.
Ferotrans TFI plans to undercut CFR on speed, aiming to complete the journey between Bucharest and Suceava in 5 hours and 20 minutes, and the route between Bucharest and Iași in 5 hours and 27 minutes with their fastest trains.
According to Romanian news website Hotnews, this will be achieved by making fewer stops en route, with only stops at the intermediate stations of Buzău, Focșani, Bacău, and Pașcani on the Bucharest-Suceava route.
The Bucharest-Iași service will only call at Buzău, Focșani, Bârlad, Vaslui, and Nicolina.
If this were indeed the final timetable, the most notable difference compared to CFR trains on this route would be the omission of a stop at Ploiești Sud, a major junction station.
The new train service is expected to start when the new railway timetable comes into effect on 15 December.
Rolling stock
Ferotrans TFI plans to operate Danish IC3 trains, a three-car Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) first built in 1989 for the Danish State Railways (DSB), on the routes from Bucharest to Suceava and from Bucharest to Iași.
The company has acquired 33 such trainsets from Israel Railways, where they were in use from 1992 to 2024 but became redundant following electrification and the opening of a new, fast railway line between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The IC3 trains will be shipped from the Israeli port of Haifa to Romania.
A Danish IC3 train. ©Johan Rosemynthe/DSB
Private train operators in Romania
Ferotrans TFI would not be the first private rail operator active in passenger transport in Romania, although it would be the first based in the northeastern region of Moldavia.
Other private rail operators active in Romania include Regio Călători, Astra Trans Carpatic, Softrans, InterRegional Călători, and Transferoviar Călători (TFC).
