Romania's Alstom locomotives face operational deadlock due to signaling failures

Romania faces a significant railway crisis as new Alstom Traxx locomotives, part of a 90 million euro investment, risk being unable to operate on the national network. According to Asociația Pro Infrastructură, these ultra-modern locomotives are being halted by the non-functional European Train Control System (ETCS). Although hundreds of millions of euros have been invested in ETCS since 2010, the system fails to connect with the new locomotives, triggering automatic safety stops.

On the Bucharest-Constanța route, ETCS beacons have been dismantled under the guise of an upgrade, but experts note that Level 1 signaling was never effectively utilized. This workaround is not viable for sections like Buftea-Crivina or Sighișoara-Curtici, where Level 2 is already installed. This technical failure contradicts European Commission goals to transition from traditional pole-based signaling to in-cab signaling.

Simultaneously, passenger numbers on major routes are declining. On the Bucharest-Brașov and Bucharest-Constanța lines, combined passenger traffic fell by approximately 429,000 in the first half of the year compared to the previous period. National statistics show a broader trend, with total rail passengers in Romania dropping from 70.8 million in 2024 to 64 million in 2025.