Budapest-Bucharest: Breakthrough in High-Speed Rail — New Details and Project Costs

Details of the planned high-speed rail line connecting Budapest and Bucharest have been revealed, this is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

The Romanian Ministry of Transport has presented new data on the high-speed rail project linking Budapest and Bucharest.

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According to recent statements, the construction may require approximately €17 billion. The project includes two potential routes, each with its own characteristics.

The first route involves a path from Bucharest through Transylvania to the Hungarian border, covering cities such as Pitești, Curtea de Argeș, Sibiu, Mediaș, Târgu Mureș, Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, and Episcopia Bihor.

The length of this section will be about 590 kilometers. The estimated cost of building one kilometer of the road is between €25-30 million, totaling approximately €17 billion.

An alternative option suggests creating a hybrid high-speed rail line.

On some sections, such as mountainous areas or existing tracks, train speeds will be limited to 160 km/h.

On the rest of the line, new sections will be built to accommodate speeds over 200 km/h. The cost-benefit analysis of the project is estimated at €142 million.

At present, the exact completion date of the project is unknown. The Ministry of Transport noted that the timeline depends on various factors, including securing financing, the results of the cost-benefit analysis, procurement schedules, and contract awards.

The planned high-speed rail line has generated significant interest among Hungarians in Transylvania.

Preliminary data suggests that the journey between Budapest and Bucharest could be reduced to three and a half hours, compared to over 11 hours currently.

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