April 12, 2005
A couple of suggestions for CFR
I've had reason to ride on Romanian trains several times recently.
This has made me think of a few simple ways that CFR, the Romanian state-owned railroad, might perhaps improve its services.
1) Schedules. There's one big train schedule, up on the wall of the station.
And that's it. Oh, paper schedules, in the form of a little booklet, are theoretically available from one window. In practice, they always seem to be out. And they're not available anywhere else but that one window.
The big schedule on the wall is of limited value, because it just lists arrivals, departures, and destinations. Like,
DEPARTURE
10:42 Ploesti, Sinaia, Brasov, Sighisoara
-- plus a color code to tell you what category of train.
That's nice, but it doesn't tell you (for instance) what time the train gets into Sighisoara; or whether it has first class compartments or couchettes or a dining car; or what other trains it might connect with. The paper schedule tells you those things, but, well.
So, if you want to make a connection... tough. Or if you're wondering when your train will arrive... better ask the conductor.
Now, in most European countries there are big poster-sized schedules all over every train station. They give all that information, and more. This isn't something unique to rich Western countries, either; they're in the train stations in Zagreb and Belgrade.
Would it be so hard to do this in Bucharest? Or -- might it be possible for kiosks in the station to sell the paper schedules?
2) In the "International" ticket office, might it be possible to have someone who speaks English?
I recently had to make a moderately complex booking: night train from Bucharest to Cluj, then a different train from Cluj to Budapest. This took nearly half an hour. The woman at the counter was friendly, but... it went sort of like this:
"As a foreigner, you will undoubtedly want the rather nice Train A, which is an Intercity train with a dining car. It goes through Timisoara.""Actually, I prefer Train C, because it gets into Budapest at 2:00 pm instead of 4:30, and I would like time to get to my hotel and rest before my wife and children arrive around 6:00."
"Train C does not exist."
"Yes, it does. It leaves from Cluj. I want to take Train B from Bucharest to Cluj. It leaves at 10:45 in the evening and arrives at 6:00 am."
"But then you would have to take Train C from Cluj to Budapest."
"Yes, that's right. That's what I want."
"No, you should take Train A. It is a direct train."
"No, please, I prefer Trains B and C."
...in recounting this, I've come to wonder if there was a subtext that I missed at the time. Train C, it turned out, was small, crowded, and not very clean. It didn't have couchettes or sleeping cabins or a dining car. It took 7 hours to go from Cluj to Budapest. Now I wonder if she wasn't trying to gently guide me towards the direct international route, with a "nicer" train.
Still: that conversation took half an hour, because nobody in that office spoke more than ten words of English. (Nor German either.) So it was all in my limited Romanian.
On the plus side, everyone was perfectly friendly. If they were being deliberately stubborn, they were politely so.
It could be a bit more user friendly, is all.
Posted by douglas at April 12, 2005 07:24 PMheh, welcome to the State-owned companies' world. :) The local trains that go across the borders are usually crap, as your experience shows, so probably the clerk was shy or unable to explain that to you. My experience with the Romanian trains is to never take a train from below the rapid category. 6-8 years back I used to travel quite a lot on the Bucharest-Budapest-Prague routes, tried all combinations available and learnt the hard way that when it comes to trains IC or international are worth the extra you're asked for. This also applies when considering the travel by bus - it's a what you pay is what you get choice. :)
I made only one exception to travelling with trains from less than rapid category in the last years. Two years ago I went to the mountains with two friends of mine for biking and the experience was ... oh well, I almost got into a fight for daring to ask the people sharing the wagon no to smoke in the cabin. And yes, they were drunk, noisy and aggrseive all the way as well.
So you'd better stay away from local trains, it's more expensive not to but well worth the extra.
A minor correction also -- you probably meant Budapest, not Bucharest in the last part of the phrase: "night train from Bucharest to Cluj, then a different train from Cluj to Bucharest."
Posted by: Dragos at April 13, 2005 05:32 PMHow much does it cost to take the train from Budapest to Bucharest, and is it worth doing that rather than flying? The Deutsches Bahn Web site tells me all the timetable information, but with no costing, and no indication of whether it's worth taking the fourteen-hour trip in the daylight to see a transect across Hungary and the Carpathians, or whether it's something better done at night?
[it would be the first time I go to Bucharest]
Posted by: Tom Womack at April 14, 2005 10:55 AMHi Tom,
"How much" depends on what train you take and what ticket -- second or first class and, if overnight, couchette or sleeper car.
But it's not much. A one-way ticket for a first-class sleeper car is about $100.
I like the overnight train, but you don't see much, no. I guess it depends on why you're travelling (business? pleasure?) and how much time you have.
The Budapest-Budapest route is rather dull through Hungary; it goes through the Puszta, the great Hungarian plain, which is basically Iowa. (There's a more northern route, via Oradea and Cluj, that is prettier, but you wouldn't take that.) Once you hit Transylvania, it gets a lot more dramatic, and the actual passage through the Carpathians is pretty spectacular. But if you're going to be in Bucharest for a while, you can take a train from Buch to Brasov (about three hours) for a day trip and get the same thing.
So, it depends.
cheers,
Doug M.
I've had a similar experience travelling from Oradea to Budapest. The train on that route, which runs from Brasov I think, via Cluj, Oradea then Bucharest is a pretty terrible experience. With no intended arrogance, the train is actually run by MAV (the Hungarian operator), it's the one called "Coronoa". Even the first class carriages are pretty terrible - kitsch-looking, super-soft, low seats which sink in, and pretty dirty all over. And it's supposed to be an express train.
It's really strange how the office ladies at CFR don't speak English... indeed, CFR is known for its unprofessionality :) I actually wrote a post about it in by blog - CFR was nominated as part of my "Hall of Shame of Romanian web design".
They're trying harder though, and the EuroCity from Bucharest to Budapest is indeed quite good, as are the Blue Arrow ICs.
What Dragos said is really true about not catching anything below rapid category. It's just that it not only depends on category, but also on luck. Some of the Accelerat rolling stock can be quite good actually, especially in first class, while some of the older Rapid rolling stock is really bad. You'll find that even some Personals can be quite good, especially since in 2003 many Accelarats were downgraded to Personal status but the actual rolling stock remained the same.
Considering the option of flying... it's probably not much better. If Carpatair could offer a Budapest to Bucharest flight then it would be much better, but currently the options are really limited. So, with all of its ills, the train does remain the best way of getting there.
Posted by: Mihai at April 15, 2005 02:32 PMI agree with the fact that trains in Romania are crap but I don't think that it is a matter of "state owned company" as Dragos says. Generally, in other countries in Europe, rail transport is state owned and is fast, comfortable and clean.
On the CFR's web site, even if it's like a web design's hall of shame, I usually get the information I want. You can find there train schedules and the list of services aboard.
Posted by: Adrian at April 18, 2005 05:32 PMI think Dragos was referring to state-owned companies in a Romanian context... most state-run companies in Romania are pretty inefficient and rough around the edges.
You're right though about other European rail companies being state-owned yet good-quality. Even in Central Europe you get that. When I was travelling to Prague and around Czechia, the trains run by Ceske drahy were really good, basically the same quality as the Western European ones.
CFR can sometimes be good, don't get me wrong. Travelling on the Blue Arrow trains, or the ICs is really good. Even the Rapids aren't that bad. I actually that it's mostly a lot of the addons that are missing... like Doug said - proper station displays, properly-maintained stations, for a start, toilets, etc. The actual main service that they provide - the actual rolling stock - is OK. The background infrastructure isn't all that great, but it's getting better. That's great to see.
As to CFR's website, I'm not saying it's not functional in a raw sense, but it's very rough around the edges. The trip planner is OK, but it's really unrefined - if you type in a station name wrong, it doesn't give you any options. It's also not all that user friendly, and doesn't give you integrated international connections. I'm not trying to say that they provide a bad service... at least there *is* a trip planner, and I have found it quite useful, but I'm just saying that it needs to be refined. A very good example is the Ceske drahy trip planner, which is really great (I was testing it to see what it would say if I wanted to travel from Ostrava to Tulcea with it... it gave me all the info)
Concerning the whole site, it's pretty terrible. What sort of home page is that? They should have the trip planner on the front page, like most other rail sites, and then clear links and a more user-friendly design. Sorry if I'm boring you with web design talk here :)
Posted by: Mihai at April 19, 2005 02:11 PMWell Mihai, I totally agree with you.
Of course, in Romania, the state is a very bad company administrator, but still, I am not going to start a useless discussion of what can and what cannot be privatized :)
Even the Blue Arrow trains are bad in my opinion. I took this train once between Bucharest and Iasi and the only great "feature" I found was that the train was still clean at that time.
I also agree the website is awfull but, when I come to Romania from time to time it helps me to find connections and ticket prices, which is ok for now. As you say, it needs improvements.
But, all I tried to say is not to mix things and see them as they are :)
Posted by: Adrian at April 22, 2005 11:00 AMI would like to take an overnight train from Bucharest to Budapest, but I have heard from some people that it can be dangerous (ie, people will rob you while you are sleeping etc) Is this true? Are there certain trains you can take that are safer? for example, where you can lock your sleeping car or something? Any experiences/tips would be appreciated! Thanks!
Posted by: Mariana at March 31, 2006 06:48 PMI would like to take an overnight train from Bucharest to Budapest, but I have heard from some people that it can be dangerous (ie, people will rob you while you are sleeping etc) Is this true? Are there certain trains you can take that are safer? for example, where you can lock your sleeping car or something? Any experiences/tips would be appreciated! Thanks!
Posted by: Mariana at March 31, 2006 06:50 PMHas anyone taken a train from Bucharest to Eforie Nord on the black sea? How long does it take and is there a "better class" train to choose from; I am a female traveling alone and wary. Thanks
Posted by: tania at July 16, 2007 07:21 AM