ROMANIA: Contracts have been signed to modernise the 30 km Cluj-Napoca – Aghireș and 36 km Aghireș – Poieni sections of the Cluj-Napoca – Oradea – Hungarian border line, deploy ETCS and undertake electrification.
The two packages have been agreed between infrastructure manager CFR SA and the Asocierea RailWorks consortium of Alstom and Romanian civil works company Arcada.
Alstom will provide electrification including power supply and overhead contact line, two traction power stations and its OCS3 catenary design. It will also deploy digital train control, traffic management and ETCS Level 2 linside equipment, plus telecoms and passenger information systems on both sections.
‘These new contracts consolidate Alstom’s leading position on the Romanian railway market, for both digital train control and electrification. In the recent years, București has become a strategic centre for Alstom’s signalling expertise, employing over 200 highly qualified engineers, whose expertise serves local projects, and international ones’, said Gabriel Stanciu, Alstom’s Managing Director for Romania, Bulgaria & Moldova.
Arcada will carry out civil works including infrastructure and superstructure renovation. The implementation period for both contracts is 42 months.
The upgrading will enable passenger trains to run at up to 160 km/h and freight at 120 km/h.
The works are being financed through Romania’s EU-backed National Recovery & Resilience Plan.
Contracts for the enhancement of the 52·7 km Poieni – Alesd section of the 166 km Cluj-Napoca – Oradea – Hungarian border route were let in November 2022, and for the 50 km between Tileagd, Oradea and Episcopia Bihor in October.
