Romania's home built 'High Speed' Train is WEIRD

Romania offers an exciting variety of Trains with most of them being second hand models from other european countries. But today, we will be checking out Romainas home built 'High Speed' Train and only electric multiple unit in the country - the Softrans Hyperion, built by Softronic in Craiova. And although the attempt of building these trains in country is respectable, the result is a rather interesting and weird mix of things you wouldn't really expect in a High Speed Train. So get aboard and learn about this weird Train while enjoying a Trip from Bucharest to Brasov.

Date of Filming: 09/05/2024
Camera: Google Pixel 6a
Operator: Softrans
Departure: 09:14
Arrival: 11:44
Distance: 167 km; 104 mi
Journey Time: 2 h 30 min
average speed: 66.8 km/h; 41.5 mi/h
Cost: 37 RON; 7.44 EUR; 6.40 GBP; 7.99 USD

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:26 Welcome to Bucharest!
0:46 The beautiful station
1:11 Historic features
1:50 Softronic Hyperion Unit
2:18 Busy Service
2:40 The Route
3:17 Enjoy the Ride & WIFI
3:38 The Seat
4:34 A cozy Trip
4:54 The interesting Interior
5:22 Danish Trains in Romania?
5:48 Toilet Review
6:20 Tickets & Booking
7:12 Rating the Journey

[nurgleschosen]

If only the trains wouldn't move at a snail pace and the rails would be maintained well enough to actually allow these trains to move at their actual speeds

[alpitu]

I absolutely love this video. Congratulations man, I'm happy that you enjoyed your trip here. I also very much love how you tried your hardest to pronounce the romanian cities, it was so cute haha. But you did a really good job.

[downgrading]

the german second hands [ 0:13 ] were acquired quite recently! they were bought by regiocalatori to replace their almost fossilized red/beige ones. chairs are pretty comfy, doors are automatic, and it has tables and charging plugs. these all sound like mundane features but theyre crazy new for the average commuter like i am

[e]

Dude, the landscape from Sinaia to Predeal is literally the most spectacular mountain view you can see on the Romanian railways. It seems you just missed it because of low clouds.

p.s. to anyone outside Romania traveling here by rail, please avoid the bathrooms in the train stations and on CFR operated trains if at all possible. Trust me, you don't want to go in there.

[ciochinabogdanvasile]

Softrans was made cuz the state owned CFR didn't wanna buy romanian made trains. So Softronic made Softrans, tho softronic sells trains to Swiden, Bulgaria, Slovacia, Germany

[razvy]

Me and some friends got to visit the Softronic factory, the owners of the company are really nice people!

[sorinpopa]

1:03 They promised they gonna invest 200+ mil $ to renovate this railway and get it to the European standards !
At the end of this year the work should start according to the Ministry of Transport here.
But we heard this lies before so still nothing 100% yet i guess haha.

[unknown_karma]

you should also point out how each station you went through has a historic locomotive as display, steam or electric

[asmr-pov]

I absolutely love this clip! Your unique perspective and engaging presentation style always keep me captivated. I never miss a second and can't wait to see more!

[epender]

Quick note: The IC2 wasn't Danish built – it was built in Italy by the disastrous AnsaldoBreda for Danish State Railways (DSB) as part of their modernisation efforts in the 2000s.
The trains were so unreliable that the IC2 barely saw service and most of them sat abandoned in railway sidings before eventually being sold to Romania.

Their big brother the IC4 is still in service after major teething problems, DSB is only just recovering from the damage. One of them never entered service and instead ended up in Libya (a country with no railways) as a luxury gift from Italy to Gaddafi.

[martinc.]

Thank you for giving information concerning accessibility for persons with reduced mobility. I am aware that some countries face challenges in making their train network accessible, but it is interesting to get some information in videos, as this information is not always readily available

[bombardier]

Romania's train infrastructure is generally bad, because it has fallen into disrepair. I don't know a whole lot about trains (this video just got pushed a lot to my front page and I decided to just watch it to see what it's about), however CFR has pretty much had a monopoly on train transport since its inception. It's only recently that new players in the business have started to pop up, like Softrans. Back in the days of the communist regime, when most the tracks were new or maintained, the cruising speed was 90 km/h. Now, in some areas, it's been reduced to 40 km/h. With so many disadvantageous transport solutions, no wonder Romania has turned into a car-centric country. We are building more highways rather than railroads.

[Snail_Slowly_Moves]

taking into account this is a private and not a state operator so they also got to make a profit the quality per dollar/euro spent is CRAZY

[CiprianCoci]

Good value for a 2.5-hour journey.. In the Uk, a 25-minute journey cost over 17£.

[-victor]

If you ever go again to Brașov you should try the Astra TransCarpatic train, it s really good

[gautamnatrajan]

You didn't say what was so weird about the train besides the seating.

[AparatorulPoporului]

În the last months started the investments into the train and rails infrastructure, they are working right now to make it better, if you return in 2/3 years everything will be much better, there is alot o money infused into this side.

[overclashtsk]

In general you don't need to sit in your assigned seat in Romania. They don't really care for that in 90% of cases. Also don't expect CFR to operate at anything more than 60 km/h. It once took me 4 hours to get to Oradea from Arad and 3 hours from Arad to Timisoara although it's only some 40 something km away.

[MVRiCkU]

I used Softrans 2 months ago on the same route. The CFR (state own company) cost double - and will cost around 150 lei (30 euros) one way to Brasov from Bucharest for 2 adults. From this point is cheaper by car - for this trip. Diesel is around ~ 1.5 euro/L with an average consumption of 6L/100Km. You`ll come cheaper for 2 adults or more . The plus for Softrans: you get what you paid for. Minus: Confort. This is at best a regional train/ commute train - NOT an intercity. Trips that last more than 30-40 minutes become uncomfortable. Quality of the ride... I found CFR trains more comfortable, better suspensions and less noise compared to Softrans. At 120 Km/h Softrans trains vibrate. CFR trains do not !

[IonutR]

One of the main source of ... leaking money from the Ministry of transport is through CFR. They did it for decades! No repairing the stations, no renewing the carriages or locomotives, don't get me started on the state of the tracks, they just began in the last 4 years refitting or replacing some of them ( mind you, no major work has been done to them since 1988!!!! can't even talk about newly built lines... no plans for that! ). Softronic is making freight locomotives mainly for DB Schencher, OBB and a few other State owned companies all throughout Europe and also a few private operators. CFR refuses to buy what we call "rame electrice", this type of train from Softronic because they can't leak what they want. They put an order for polish trains, the first few already arrived, 2 of them are out of order because in testing on the railway network they got damaged by rocks... its a complete clowfest