Over 35 percent of Bucharest tram lines are older than 40 years and have tens of thousands of cracks, the Bucharest Transport Company (STB) reports. Nearly 600 rail breaks have been found on Bessarabia Boulevard in the Romanian capital alone. The infrastructure is worst in the eastern and northern parts of the city. There, trams move at very low speeds and sway over bumps like a boat on water, BTA reports.
Worn-out rails are increasingly causing accidents. To prevent them, local authorities have launched several buses to replace tram traffic. But passengers complain that they run at longer intervals and are often late.
“Approximately 65 percent of the tram lines were modernized 25 years ago, around 2000. The rest of the route is over 40 years old. This often leads to traffic accidents involving trams. Every day we register over 900 rail breaks,” said Constantin Tobescu, spokesman for the Bucharest Transport Company, quoted by the Romanian national television TeVere.
“The rails are very old, laid during communism. They have no foundation, no asphalt layer, they were manufactured in Romania with questionable quality, and that is where the problems arise,” explained the company’s director Adrian Critz to G4media.
Statistics show that trams in Bucharest derail most often due to the poor condition of the lines, thus becoming a real trap for road users. In the summer, they also become a “sauna on wheels” – 60 percent of trams in the Romanian capital do not have air conditioning and on the hottest days the temperature inside them exceeds 40 degrees.
Illustrative Photo by Cosmin ChiWu: https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-on-sidewalk-near-vehicles-and-tramway-12623895/
