Of Trains And Metros – Into Romania and Bucharest
Miles to Bucharest
It’s time to enter a “new to me” country and work out how to get to my hotel in downtown Bucharest. To the Trains and Metros!
In this adventure
- The Last Gasp of Silver (or British Airways did us all dirty)
- Off to Heathrow and the wonder of Terminal 3
- Lounging around Terminal 3 with Cathay Pacific and Qantas
- BA886 London Heathrow to Bucharest Henri Coandă (Club Europe)
- Exiting Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport and into the City – Of Trains and Trams
- Mercure Urinii
- An evening walk with a camera phone
- Morning Explore
- Back to Bucharest Airport and the Visa Satalite Lounge.
- BA887 Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
- To the Trains! And a bus too.
- Silver retained. But a New Battle awaits
Exiting the aircraft, it was a matter of hiking along and following the signs for Schegen and the exit.
The non schegnen area
Immigration
Of course, this means clearing passport control. Thankfully, the queue for Non-Schegen passengers was short, and I was dealt with in under five minutes.
With that formality complete, it was time to pass the many circular portals as I walked down the terminal building. With no baggage to claim, I continued on to the arrivals area.
The Portal will open in 3…2..1…. v
Once in the public terminal, I loaded Google Maps to work out where I would be going next and the quickest route into Bucharest.
Duty Free Arrivals
There are two routes you can take to the centre of Bucharest from the airport – the 100 Express bus, the 442 Bus (allowing you to connect to the Metro sooner) or there is an… infrequent train service, which runs every 40 minutes.
The bus cost 3 Lei (~53p/US $0.63/ €0.60), whilst the train was a budget-breaking 6 Lei (~£1.06/ US$1.26 / €1.21).
Arrivals
Arrivals
My timing was such that the train was the best option. I headed through the car park and towards the train station – at least it’s a covered walkway (pro tip – you can find the timetables at https://mersultrenurilor.infofer.ro/en-GB/Itineraries).
To the trains
That looks like trains.
Upon reaching the train station, I was directed to a ticket booth, where my 6 lei were taken off me – by contactless payment.
I’d solve the issue of having some hard cash a little later on – but contactless works (and rather well to be honest).
With a ticket in hand and 3 minutes on the clock, I made it onboard a Siemens Desiro Two-Car Deisl multiple unit, which would operate a local stopping service at Patinoar PO and Parc Mogoșoaia to Bucharest Gara de Nord (North Station).
A Diesel Desiro
The train is a modern Siemens Desiro Two-car unit (locally known as CFR Călători Class 96 or “Săgeata Albastră” (The Blue Arrow)) – with very low floor sections (close enough to the ground) and very high ridge sections (where you rode under the bogies). It’s familiar enough that you recognise the train, but unfamiliar enough that you’re keeping your ears open for the voices.
With the train pulling out of the Airport train station, it quickly went from two tracks to one track as the train made a stop just outside the airport, and in the middle of a town.
Car parking as we pulled out
To say the train line passes close to the hotel would… an understatement
If I was to describe the airport service, it’s very much a branch line of a branch line. The ride quality was… there, with it able to accelerate comfortably on higher speed track. At lower speeds… it was a little bouncy across the joints in the track.
I will give high marks for putting in an airport service. I can’t judge against 40-minute frequency although I could give a lot more marks for a clockface 30-minute frequency), but I suspect there are more than a few pathing to get what they have.
Pulling into Bucarset station, it felt like a different world from the level boarding at the airport, with a big step down to the platform needed.
As well as that, the use of locomotive-based traffic was evident here, with some locomotives only having a couple of carriages connected, and loco swaps being conducted.
It’s not wrong – it’s just different coming from the world of multiple units and push-pull trains.
Exiting the train, I headed into the main train shed, as I was now working out how to get to Bulevardul Unirii (Union Boulevard). Thankfully, Metro Line 1 would take me there.
SO! Coffee.
If I had done a little more reading up before I travelled, I would had found that I was able to my trips on the metro from the phone as a contactless payment. As such, I paid for a two-trip subway ticket for 10 Lei (or £2.29/US$2.10/€2).
I’m not disappointed – mainly because I got to use both rides. I can live with that.
From here it was a matter of watching the on-train announcements and trying to work out my stop. Not difficult, but something to keep your wits about especially as GPS functionality is nill (although mobile service was excellent). Whilst some of the stops had English announcements, most did not. Thus, one had to keep one’s wits about them.
The system itself felt pretty safe to use – with a swipe/tap to enter the system, and you pass a gate to exit at your destination. One fare would cover your ride, as opposed to paying for distance.
I suppose the usual rule of following the signs and seeing where they take you comes to mind.
Exiting at Piața Unirii I had popped out at a side that I expected the hotel to be on. From here, it was a 10-minute walk down the boulevard and turning left for the hotel.
MEGAPAN!
Well, not before I messed up and crossed the road for an ATM to get 100 lei out.
Such is life.
Overhead
Crossing back over, I headed to the Mecure Unirii – my base for the night.
Next: Mecure Unirii
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