Today we're going to be checking out Romania's own high-speed train,
with its somewhat quirky and strange interior. We'll be speeding through Romania's countryside,
as this unique train makes its way towards the Black Sea.
Welcome to the beautiful București Nord station, here in Romania's capital city.
This is the main station in the city, serving all long-distance and
international traffic, as well as the majority of local services.
Making our way inside the station, we're met with a beautiful interior,
consisting of marble pattern flooring, and intricate ceiling designs.
The main passageway here contains a lot of food outlets and shops,
with a pharmacy and exchange booth also being present.
Something I really liked about this station was how they proudly display some of the biggest
pieces of Romanian Railway infrastructure on posters throughout the entrance hall.
Anyway, moving through to the crowded main concourse area,
you can find even more choice of food and drink outlets.
Choice is a big part of today's journey, with the route from București to Constanța being served by
five different operators, using all sorts of trains, mostly being second-hand from abroad.
My train today will be RE 15989 to Constanța, operated by Softrans.
Softrans is a company set up by train manufacturer and overhaul company Softronic. They operate three
160km/h (100mph) capable electric units they built themselves on three routes around Romania.
My train is arriving now, it's the third member of the fleet, built in 2019.
These four car 'Hyperion' trains are actually the only electric units in Romania,
with everything else being loco-hauled or diesel units.
The train definitely looks unique, with a streamlined front and large coupling hatch,
which can be lifted out of the way to work in multiple.
The interior is in a 2+2 layout, and both airline-style and table
seating is available. All of the Hyperion units have slightly different interiors,
with subtle changes across the three sets.
Softrans only has second class seating, with reservations available up to 30 minutes prior
to departure from the origin. I'll be sitting in Coach 4, Seat 184. A forward facing window seat.
The interior gives a nice first impression, it feels very modern and clean,
which going off my experience, isn't always the case in Romania.
Today's route begins right in the centre of Romania's capital,
at the fantastic Gara de Nord station. We'll be heading east today, on the very
straight and flat mainline towards the Black Sea, and the City of Constanța,
including some impressive bridges and surprising sights out of the window along the way.
The journey is scheduled to take 2 hours and 6 minutes
to cover the 225km (or about 140 miles) of track.
We end up departing București Nord on-time at 10:20.
The journey starts with a massive u-turn, as Gara de Nord faces away from Constanța.
Romania is a country that has a lot of sleeper trains, including quite a few to Constanța.
When not in use during the day, you can often find them parked up here in the sidings.
Anyway, not long after leaving, the train is able to accelerate up to its top-speed
of 160km/h (100mph), so let's take a look at the interior on this train.
The seating looks a lot like what you'd find on a modern bus to be honest,
though it was actually very comfortable and well padded.
A folding armrest can be found beside each seat, which weirdly folds up instead of down.
Note that no armrests can be found between seats.
For legroom I found there was just about enough space,
though I can imagine this would get pretty cosy on a longer journey.
A small storage net can be found at the bottom of the seat in front.
Above this is the seatback table.
This was very small, and also came with two incredibly small cupholders, though personally
I wouldn't trust this table with much more than a sheet of paper, let alone two drinks.
The line from București to Constanța is the fastest
in Romania, with its limit of 160km/h (100mph).
Softrans also operate these Hyperion units on other routes, namely to Brașov and its home
base of Craiova, however those routes don't allow it to truly stretch its legs like this one does.
One more feature of the seat that I nearly forgot to mention, is the recline feature. Or rather,
the lack of, as despite having a recline button, the seat doesn't actually recline!
On the plus side, two European style sockets can be found up here, between each window,
After about one hour, we are arriving at the first station on today's trip.
This is Ciulnița, a station located in the village of Dragalina. The village of
Ciulnița itself is some 12km (7.5mi) away from the station, and has a population of only 1,000.
We're back on the move, so it's time to go for
a walk around the train to see what other features there are.
First off in coach 2, you can find a vending machine.
Unfortuantely, this was left unstocked, so no food was available on this trip.
In coach 3, there is a hot drinks machine which I didn't try using.
Though, it was well priced, everything costing just 2 Romanian lei.
Just next to this, there's an on-train library,
which commmemorates Craiova's status as a European Capital of Culture in 2021.
I definitely can't read Romanian, so I couldn't tell you if these books are any good or not,
but I think it's a really cool and novel feature for a train.
Moving on to the toilet.
If you were expecting a toilet seat, then you can forget it, as for some reason there wasn't one.
The soap dispenser was working fine, but the tap was barely letting out a dribble of water.
The hand-dryer was also not working. And lastly, there was no toilet paper!
I can't say I was too impressed with the toilet,
which seemed to be missing a lot of fairly important stuff.
As indicated by these old abandoned locos, we're on the approach to our next station, Fetești.
I was surprised at what there was to see in Fetești, with some abandoned carriages,
steam locomotives, a roundhouse with some wagons lying around,
and perhaps worst of all, a recent train crash!
I found the station building at Fetești to have a pleasant design,
with its glass panels and tall structure giving off a grand impression.
We then continue on to cross over the River Danube...
...before going over the 1980s Cernavodă bridge,
to cross another part of the River Danube. This modern bridge runs adjacent to the King
Carol I Bridge, which dates back over a hundred years to the 1890s.
For luggage space, the Hyperion has small overhead luggage racks throughout the entire train,
with no larger luggage stacks available.
There's also coathooks provided between every window,
and finally a really effective window blind.
For this trip, I bought a standard rate ticket for a price of 34 Romanian lei. On this 140
mile journey, that gives a price per mile of about 4p, which I think is really good value for money!
With so much competition on the București to Constanța line, it's a challenge to
compare all of the services. Having said that, Softrans operates a modern and clean fleet,
with comfy seats, as well as sockets - and all that for a competitive fare.
Despite this, there were a few problems. For example the bus seating on these trains isn't
ideal, with no middle armrest, a fake recline, and pointless seatback tables.
The toilet was also missing a lot of important things, which was disappointing.
Still, I enjoyed this journey with Softrans,
and it was really interesting to try out Romania's self-built high-speed train too.
We actually arrive into Constanța with a delay of seventeen minutes, at 12:43.
So what did you think of Romania's own high-speed train?
Would you travel with Softrans on their Hyperion? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
If you enjoyed learning about Romania's high-speed trains, then you'll want to click
this video on-scren now, to learn all about the Turkish high-speed trains too.
Thanks for watching, and I look forward to seeing you again on my next journey!