Romania Advances Suburban Rail Projects Outside Bucharest
Romania has signed suburban-rail contracts for Cluj-Napoca on 11 May 2026 and received project approvals for Brașov and Târgu Mureș on 1 June 2026, while the capital's own metropolitan-rail plan remains stuck in feasibility studies. On 21 May, the transport ministry, city council and CFR signed a funding agreement securing 1.131bn lei in EU co-financing for the cross-city suburban rail project along the 48.8 km Bonțida–Gârbău corridor, while the implementation contract for constructing and modernising the 23 stations on this route was signed separately on 11 May 2026.
According to Railway Gazette, brasov and Targu Mures both had suburban projects approved on 1 June: a three-line, 72km, roughly €230m network around Brasov linking Stupini, Codlea-Sfantu Gheorghe and Zarnesti-Darste, including a 4km spur to Brasov-Ghimbav Airport, and a separate 72km Reghin-Targu Mures-Ludus corridor serving Transylvania International Airport.
Bucharest's "tren metropolitan" master plan, dating from 2021, envisions a 330km orbital and radial network, but both of its priority projects remain in feasibility study with CFR and no routes finalised. TPBI, the capital's transport operator, has said the Gara de Vest-Gara Progresul section through Cotroceni -- near the Parcul Liniei linear park built from 2022 -- is "extremely difficult and almost unfeasible" (extrem de dificila si aproape irealizabila) to rehabilitate, and has proposed decommissioning Cotroceni station.
The regional projects draw on the EU's Transport Programme for Romania 2021-27, which offered up to €495m in co-financing in a September 2023 call, alongside a national CFR-ARF cooperation framework running since June 2022. Romania's wider Recovery and Resilience Facility-financed rail schemes, including the roughly 155km Caransebes-Timisoara-Arad line, total more than €2.6bn, all carrying a completion deadline of 31 December 2026.