ROMANIA: Hitachi Rail has completed Romania’s first deployment of its new L90 RO electronic interlocking platform at Ciulnița and Fetești stations, replacing the legacy SELMIS equipment previously used at the two stations on the Bucharest–Constanța line.

Railway tracks and overhead electrification at Ciulnița station after the Hitachi Rail signalling upgrade
Modernized railway infrastructure at Ciulnița station in Romania. Photo: Hitachi Rail.

The ESTW/IXL L90 RO system was commissioned at Ciulnița in December 2025 and at Fetești in June 2026, on behalf of national infrastructure administrator CFR SA. The project — covering both stations, plus rebuilt infrastructure, power supply and telecommunications systems — began in June 2023 under a contract between CNCF CFR SA and the Arcada Company–ISPCF consortium, and had reached 92.75% physical progress as of the most recent CFR monitoring update, according to Mediafax.

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A different corridor, same company

Railway Supply previously covered Hitachi Rail’s separate modernization of Romania’s Ghioroc–Barzava line near the Hungarian border, where the company’s L90 interlockings raised train speeds from 120 to 140 km/h. That project and the Ciulnița–Fetești work are distinct: one sits on the western route toward Hungary, the other on the route to the Black Sea, which CFR’s own network statement lists as part of the Rhine–Danube Corridor. The two projects show Hitachi deploying related L90 interlocking technology on strategic corridors in both western and southeastern Romania.

What to watch

The remaining work involves finishing the last stretches of track and platform reconstruction at both stations, with the project already close to completion. Separately, CFR’s broader modernization plans for Romania’s signalling network include rollout of ETCS Level 2 and GSM-R telecommunications on other corridors — worth watching for whether either system is extended to the Ciulnița–Fetești section in a future phase, since neither has been confirmed for this specific project.

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