Romania’s national rail company has been fined more than half a million lei for train delays, dirty toilets, broken windows and poor quality food offered at railway stations, the consumer protection agency said.
Paul Anghel, chairman of the Consumer Protection Authority, said the company, CFR, had been fined a total of 578,000 lei (121,000 euro) for a raft of shortcomings both on the trains and at railway stations, Agerpres national news agency reported.
Inspectors carried out checks at stations and on trains across the country on February 6-7, and found dirty toilets, broken benches and cracked or broken windows, he said Wednesday.
The worst train stations were in southern Romania, in the counties of Mehedinti, Calarasi, Giurgiu and Ialomita, while the best kept stations are in Transylvania in the counties of Alba, Sibiu and Bihor.
More than 100 passengers filed complaints to the consumer protection agency about train delays and changes in the price of tickets at Bucharest railway stations. He said there were some improvements in recent years such as wheelchair champs for disabled people at Bucharest railway stations.
Anghel said most complaints were about delays, modified prices, train cancellations or the trains’ speed,” rather than hygiene.
Romanian railway infrastructure ranks 26th out of 28 in the European Union, virtually last, because the last two countries, Malta and Cyprus, don’t have a rail service.
The average speed of Romanian trains is just 50 kilometers an hour, less than half the EU average.
