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EU Urban Mobility Observatory
  • News article
  • 18 June 2018
  • 1 min read

The Romanian Government allocates funds to renew public transport fleet across the country

Last week the Romanian Government approved the funding of more than €400 million of European funds to provide brand new trams, trolleybuses and electric buses across the country. Funds will also encompass recharging points and intelligent transport equipment – as well as upgrading the current fleet of school buses used by municipalities and local administrations across the country to Diesel Euro 6.

According to the Competitive cities report, Romanian cities are currently facing serious problems with car traffic: after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, in most Romanian cities the number of motor vehicles increased exponentially (as an example, in Bucharest, the number of motor vehicles increased from 300,000 in 1989 to about 2,000,000 at present), which led to overcapacity of the network infrastructure and creating more traffic jams.

The majority of Romanian cities have not managed to maintain and modernise the existing fleet in the long term, so that in many cities the public transport systems reduced their overall quality. In some cases, public transport systems have even disappeared because they have not proved profitable. This phenomenon led to an overall  decrease of public transport users and an increase of motorised private vehicles on the roads.

Until recent years, a lack of local funds also contributed to the deterioration of the existing public transport fleet. In addition, the fragmentation of public transport services at municipal and intermunicipal level led to the inefficiency of public transport, in relation to the needs of the territory.

These new interventions are expected to improve, modernise and improve efficiency in public transport systems for many Romanian cities in the coming years.

Source: Story first published in June on Profit.ro

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Details

Publication date
18 June 2018
Topic
  • Clean and energy-efficient vehicles
  • Collective passenger transport
Country
  • Romania