Bucharest – Bucharest North Railway Station

I’m not going on any trains this week, but I thought that I’d visit Romania’s largest railway station, Gara București Nord. It was first constructed between 1868 and 1872 and was expanded between 1895 and 1896.

I like these old signs, although I imagine that the staff must curse slightly whenever there are timetable changes.

There are more modern signs as well though.

They must have got bored of doing this in the early twenty-first century…..

Some history about the railway station.

This is quite an imposing entrance to the building, although this section feels quite tired and worn. There are some newer additions to the railway station interior, but this all seems a little dated. Comparing it to the new railway stations across Poland, which usually have a shopping centre added above them, or indeed the ones in the UK, it perhaps needs some modernisation. I’m sure that will come, but it’ll be a huge upheaval at the station whilst that work is carried out, but without progress, rail usage is perhaps going to keep on falling. There was some talk of a project such as this in 2009, when it was costed at 300 million euros, a figure now which will likely be nearer to one billion euros….

And the tracks and trains, which all seemed clearly signed. Although rail usage has started to stall over the last couple of decades, there are still over 200 trains a day which depart from here. This is also one of the cities where the Orient Express once passed through, I suspect when things were a little more opulent. The railway station might be dated in parts, but it does still have some historic charm to it, and I rather like it.