Budapest-Constanta High Speed Rail Contract To Be Signed In ‘09- Romanian Transp Min

Orban also said, after a seminar on transport issues organized by the Romanian Railway Industry Association, that the contract would be signed in 2009, as the task book needed for the feasibility study is being drafted.

In September, Bucharest officials said Romania and Hungary plan to obtain funds from the European Union, with Austria’s support, for the pre-feasibility study of the project, as the costs of investment, due in 2015, amount to a few billion euros.

The governments of the two countries agreed, within their joint meeting in November 2007, to build a joint high-speed rail on the Budapest -Bucharest-Constanta route to continue the Paris-Strasburg-Stuttgart-Vienna-Bratislava-Budapest route.

Orban said at the time that construction works are due in 2015, stressing the main problem remains the financing process, given that costs are estimated to reach a few billion euros.