Train routes in Romania
25 routes · classic 17 · night train 3 · scenic 2 · heritage 3
25 routes cross Romania in the World Train Map atlas. The longest is the EN Ister at 874 km; the fastest is the EN Ister, running up to 160 km/h; the oldest line dates to 1858. Every route links to its facts, photo and story, and to the interactive world map.
Open the world railway map →Part of the Europe train map: every route on the continent, one map.
Classic (17)
- Prahova Valley Railway
Climbs the Prahova gorge past Peleș Castle at Sinaia to Predeal, Romania’s highest station at 1,032 m, under the Bucegi’s 2,500 m walls.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - InterRegio Cluj
The long haul from Bucharest over the Carpathians via Brașov and medieval Sighișoara to Cluj-Napoca, heart of Transylvania.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - InterRegio Timișoara
Follows the Danube past the Iron Gates gorge, then climbs to Timișoara, the Banat city where Romania’s 1989 revolution ignited.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - InterRegio Sibiu–Brașov
Runs under the Făgăraș Mountains, Romania’s highest, along the Olt valley between the Saxon citadels of Sibiu and Brașov.
- InterRegio 1831
Romania corner to corner in sixteen hours without going near Bucharest, from the Banat over the Eastern Carpathians at Vatra Dornei on a crossing finished in 1938, and down through Bukovina to Moldavia.
- Chișinău–Iași Cross-Border
A symbolic cross-Prut service reopened in 2021, switching from Moldova’s broad gauge to Romania’s standard gauge at the Ungheni frontier.
- Bucharest–Constanța InterCity
Romania’s fastest domestic run crosses the Danube on Anghel Saligny’s 1895 bridge before new EMUs race on to the Black Sea.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterRegio
Wallachia to the old Moldavian capital: Romania’s busiest eastern corridor, hours of steppe and vineyards ending in university-city Iași.
Wikipedia ↗ - InterRegio
The Moldavia main line north through Bacău and Roman to Suceava, jumping-off point for Bukovina’s painted monasteries.
Wikipedia ↗ - Golești–Câmpulung railway
Inaugurated on 21 June 1887 and derailed two months later between Mihăești and Stâlpeni; still an hour and a half up the Râul Târgului to Câmpulung.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - Craiova–Calafat railway
A secondary single line down to the Danube, largely unelectrified, that found new purpose when the Calafat–Vidin bridge opened the way into Bulgaria.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - Bucharest–Sofia
Two capitals in a day: south from Bucharest to the Danube, over the 1954 Friendship Bridge at Giurgiu into Ruse, then across the Bulgarian plain by Gorna Oryahovitsa and Pleven to Sofia.
- Oradea–Püspökladány railway
Over the Hungarian border on rails the Tisza Railway Company put into service on 22 April 1858, still the way out of Oradea onto the Great Plain at Püspökladány.
- Pitești–Craiova railway
Opened on 9 May 1878, six years after the line from Bucharest had reached Pitești, and still an unelectrified single track running west across the Olt to Craiova.
- Békéscsaba–Salonta railway
The Alföld to Fiume company opened it on 14 September 1871 and then went broke; Trianon cut the line in two, but nobody lifted the rails and the crossing still works.
Wikipedia ↗ - Medgidia–Tulcea railway
Begun in 1911, stopped by the war, opened to Babadag on 1 October 1925 and finished on 25 March 1938, when Tulcea, the last county town in Romania without a railway, got its first train.
Wikipedia ↗ - Târgu Jiu–Craiova railway
Filiași to Craiova is the 1878 line; the branch up the Jiu opened in two pieces in 1888, to Cărbunești and then to Târgu Jiu, which stayed the end of the railway for another 27 years.
Wikipedia ↗
Night train (3)
- EN Ister
Retraces the original 1883 Orient Express alignment through Transylvania’s castles and the Carpathian passes.
Wikipedia (HU) ↗ - Prietenia
Overnight Friendship sleeper whose coaches are jacked up for a bogie swap at Ungheni. Soviet 1,520 mm broad gauge to European standard.
- IRN Corona
Romania’s classic night loop: asleep through Székely Land and the Maramureș foothills, waking at the far northwestern corner of the country.
Scenic (2)
- Oravița–Anina Railway
The “Banat Semmering” of 1863. Romania’s first mountain railway spirals through 14 tunnels and over 10 viaducts up the Aninei gorges, a masterwork of Habsburg engineering.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - Brașov–Zărnești railway
A Transylvanian branch across the Burzenland from Brașov to Zărnești, under the limestone wall of the Piatra Craiului.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗
Heritage (3)
- Mocănița Vaser Valley
The world’s last steam-hauled forestry railway still logging, chuffing up the wild Vaser gorge in Maramureș toward the Ukrainian border.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗ - Mocănița Huțulca
Bucovina’s oldest mocănița, laid in 1888 for a Munich sawmill: the Huțulca puffs 12 km up the Moldovița valley behind a Reșița-built 764 steam engine.
- Mocănița Sovata
From the spa resort of Sovata a 1949 Chrzanów steam engine hauls open cars to Câmpu Cetății, on a rescued shard of the 82 km Târgu Mureș–Praid line of 1915.
Wikipedia (RO) ↗
Photos via Wikimedia Commons; each route page credits the author & licence
What is the fastest train in Romania?
The EN Ister, running Budapest to Bucharest at up to 160 km/h. It is one of 25 routes in Romania in this atlas.
Are there night trains in Romania?
Yes, 3 sleeper services in this atlas serve Romania: EN Ister (Budapest – Bucharest), Prietenia (Chișinău – Bucharest), IRN Corona (Bucharest – Satu Mare).
Can you cross the border by train from Romania?
Yes, 6 of its 25 routes continue into another country: EN Ister (Budapest – Bucharest), Prietenia (Chișinău – Bucharest), Chișinău–Iași Cross-Border (Chișinău – Iași), Bucharest–Sofia (Bucharest – Sofia), among others.
Which is the most scenic railway in Romania?
Romania has 2 scenic or mountain lines in this atlas. The longest is the Oravița–Anina Railway, 34 km.
Cross-border lines continue into
Train routes in Bulgaria 13 routes
Train routes in Hungary 41 routes
Train routes in Moldova 2 routes