In brief
- The Government has put a price on 106.82 km of railway between Ilva Mică and Pojorâta: 10,491,323,000 lei including VAT, that is, 10.49 billion lei. At the exchange rate written in the annex, 1 euro = 5.0851 lei, the sum comes to 2.06 billion euros. Divided by the length of the line, it works out at 98.2 million lei, that is, 19.3 million euros per kilometre, a calculation that does not appear in the act.
- The works are set at 36 months, but the decision does not say from when they are counted. The money is split 20% in the first year and 40% in each of the next two, which means an average pace of 291 million lei per month of execution. Construction and assembly take 5.67 billion lei, that is, 54.05% of the total, so almost half of the sum goes on something other than the work on the ground.
- European funds and the State budget are paying, but the act does not say how much each one gives. The sources are the Transport Programme 2021-2027 and the budget of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, and the National Railway Company „C.F.R.” S.A. answers for the way the money is used. Those concerned are passengers and hauliers on the Cluj-Suceava route, as well as landowners in Bistrița-Năsăud and Suceava counties, through which the route runs.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 818 of 25 September 2026, page 7
In force from: from publication, 25 September 2026, because Article 12(3) of Law no. 24/2000 on legislative drafting rules says that normative acts, with the exception of laws and ordinances, take effect on the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) unless they themselves lay down a later date, and this decision does not
The decision published on 25 September 2026 does not decide that something is to be built. It fixes the figures within which building is possible: how much the modernisation of 106.82 km of railway between Ilva Mică, in Bistrița-Năsăud county, and Pojorâta, in Suceava county, is allowed to cost, how long it may take and what comes out at the end. The sum approved is 10,491,323,000 lei including VAT, that is, 10.49 billion lei, and the segment is the second of three on the Apahida-Suceava line. It is the same line that the Railway Infrastructure Development Strategy 2026-2030 puts on the reserve list of the Transport Programme, in a document that counts 1,688 km of railway under speed restriction and asks for 26.34 billion euros over five years.
The annex to the decision gives the total sum, the construction and assembly part, the phasing over three years, the duration of the works and a single capacity indicator. It does not give the equivalent in euros, even though it states the exchange rate: 1 euro = 5.0851 lei, the rate valid on 5 November 2025. Doing the division, the total value is 2.06 billion euros, and the construction and assembly part, 5,670,216 thousand lei, is 1.12 billion euros. Set against the 106.82 km, the cost comes to 98.2 million lei or 19.3 million euros per kilometre of line.
The phasing adds up exactly: 2,098,265,000 lei in the first year, 4,196,529,000 in the second and the same in the third, that is, 20%, 40% and 40%, with the total matching to the last unit. The construction and assembly part adds up in the same way, 1,134,044 plus 2,268,086 plus 2,268,086. The duration is 36 months, which gives an average pace of 291 million lei per month, almost 9.6 million lei per day of execution. What is missing is the moment from which they are counted: the decision ties the 36 months to no date at all, neither to publication nor to the signature of a contract, and years I, II and III in the annex are not calendar years.
In the same issue of the Official Gazette of Romania, on the next page, the Government approved the technical and economic indicators of the Brașov-Făgăraș Motorway: 9,351,780,000 lei for 49.75 km. Both acts bear the same date, 24 September 2026, the same duration of works, 36 months, and the same source of money, the Transport Programme 2021-2027 plus the State budget. Placed side by side, the figures say something that neither act says: a kilometre of new motorway costs 188.0 million lei, and a kilometre of modernised railway 98.2 million, that is, 1.91 times less. Together, the two decisions commit 19.84 billion lei, almost 3.9 billion euros, on 156.57 km of infrastructure.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is a ceiling. Technical and economic indicators approved by government decision, on the basis of Article 42(1)(a) of Law no. 500/2002 on public finance, are the limit within which the authorising officer may contract and pay. The figure of 10,491,323,000 lei is not an indicative estimate but the threshold that cannot be crossed without a new decision. This is also where the practical importance of the 36 months and of the 106.82 km comes from: they are the deadline and the quantity against which every contract signed on this objective is measured.
The second effect is that the next stage is unblocked. Without approved indicators, the objective cannot enter the public investment programme with annual amounts and cannot be put out to tender for execution. The strategy document approved in August 2026 shows what stage the Apahida-Suceava section had reached: preparation of a feasibility study and technical design, on all three lots. The present decision moves subsection 2 from the preparation stage to that of an investment with an approved value.
The third effect concerns responsibility. Article 3 places it on the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, through the National Railway Company „C.F.R.” S.A., for the way the amounts in the annex are used. Not for meeting the deadline and not for achieving the capacity, but for the use of the money. The distinction matters, because exceeding the 36 months carries, under this act, no consequence at all.
The fourth effect is visible on the ground, not in the budget. The annex requires 106.82 km of electrified railway, in a single capacity indicator, with no design speed, no number of tracks, no stations, bridges or tunnels. For a mountain line crossing two counties, all that can be checked against the act, on handover, is the length.
The fifth effect is one of budgetary calendar. The money is given within the limits of the amounts approved each year for this purpose, so each of the three instalments depends on the budget law of the year concerned. Approving the indicators does not create a firm multiannual commitment, and that explains how an objective can have approved indicators and, at the same time, zero lei allocated for works in the ministry’s five-year plan.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
There is no earlier version of this decision: the indicators for subsection 2 are being approved now for the first time. The comparison that says something is with the neighbour along the route. On 22 December 2025 Government Decision no. 1.110/2025 was published, approving the indicators for subsection 3, Pojorâta-Suceava, that is, exactly the continuation of the line towards the north. There the value is 11,433,478,000 lei including VAT, for 82.20 km, at the exchange rate of April 2024, 1 euro = 4.9702 lei.
The difference per kilometre is large and it runs in the opposite direction to what the terrain would suggest. Subsection 3, from the Suceava side, costs 139.1 million lei or 28.0 million euros per kilometre. Subsection 2, which climbs into the mountains from Ilva Mică, costs 98.2 million lei or 19.3 million euros per kilometre, that is, 69% of the neighbour’s unit price in euros, the neighbour approved nine months earlier; in lei the ratio is 70.6%, because the two decisions use different exchange rates. The two decisions have the same annex structure and the same beneficiary, so the comparison forces nothing.
The second difference is the duration. For 82.20 km, the December 2025 decision provided for 60 months and five annual instalments. For 106.82 km, the present one provides for 36 months and three instalments. Translated into pace, it goes from 1.37 km per month to 2.97 km per month, that is, 2.17 times faster, on the segment with the harder terrain. Neither of the two decisions explains where the difference comes from.
The third difference is in the construction part. In subsection 3, construction and assembly represented 61.70% of the value. In subsection 2 they are 54.05%. In other words, out of the 10.49 billion lei approved now, 4.82 billion go on something other than construction and assembly: design, plant and equipment, consultancy, fees, and miscellaneous and unforeseen expenditure.
The fourth difference is at the source of the money. The 2025 decision spoke of non-reimbursable external funds without naming the programme and included the own revenue of the National Railway Company „C.F.R.” S.A. The present decision expressly names the Transport Programme 2021-2027 and takes the company’s own revenue off the list. What remain are European funds, the State budget and the generic formula of other lawfully constituted sources.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- The figures add up. The phasing over three years gives exactly the total, 10,491,323,000 lei, and the construction and assembly part gives exactly 5,670,216. In acts of this kind, where amounts are written in thousands of lei and rounded, matching to the unit is not a given.
- It names the European programme the money comes from. Article 2 says the Transport Programme 2021-2027, not merely non-reimbursable external funds, as the decision for the neighbouring segment did in December 2025. The difference is useful to anyone following absorption by programme.
- The unit price is lower than on the neighbouring segment: 19.3 million euros per kilometre, against 28.0 on the Pojorâta-Suceava subsection, on a stretch with terrain at least as difficult.
- The capacity indicator speaks of electrification, not merely of modernisation. For an unmodernised route, that announces a change of traction, not a simple repair of the track.
- It opens the contracting stage for the second of the three lots of the Apahida-Suceava line, after the third received its indicators in December 2025.
What remains a problem
- The 36 months have no starting point. The decision does not tie them to publication, to an order to commence or to the signature of a contract, and years I, II and III in the annex are not calendar years. In practice the deadline cannot be exceeded, because it cannot be calculated.
- The prices are those of 5 November 2025, and the act provides nothing for updating them. By the date of publication, 324 days had passed since that reference date, and execution adds a further 36 months on top of that freeze.
- It is not known how much comes from European funds and how much from the State budget. The sources are listed in the same sentence, without a percentage and without an amount, so the exposure of the national budget remains unknown.
- A single capacity indicator for 10.49 billion lei. Missing are the design speed, the number of tracks, the stations, the bridges and the tunnels, that is, precisely the elements that explain why a mountain line costs what it costs. The neighbouring decision, for the Brașov-Făgăraș Motorway, has eight.
- The annex does not give the value in euros, even though it states the exchange rate. The decision for subsection 3 had a euro column both for the total and for construction and assembly. Dropping it forces the reader to do the division himself.
- The Government’s railway strategy, approved a month earlier, allocates for the whole Apahida-Suceava line only 24,647,000 lei over the period 2026-2030, and only for a feasibility study and technical design, the remaining years appearing with zero.
Practical advice
- Read the value as a ceiling, not as a final price. Technical and economic indicators approved by government decision are the limit within which contracts may be signed. Exceeding them requires a new decision, and that one is published in the Official Gazette of Romania as well.
- Bear in mind that the sum includes VAT. The annex does not separate the tax, so part of the 10.49 billion lei returns to the budget through VAT. If you are interested in the State’s net effort, the figure in the annex is not enough for you.
- Do not confuse the approval of the indicators with the start of the works. Next come the tender, the contract and the order to commence. In August 2026, the railway strategy still showed the section at the feasibility study and technical design stage.
- If you own land along the route, follow the expropriation decisions, not this one. The indicators trigger no expropriation procedure and produce no compensation. Expropriation comes through separate acts, with lists of properties in the annex.
- When you compare with other projects, always divide by the length and use the same exchange rate. The gross value says nothing about how expensive something is: 10.49 billion lei for 106.82 km and 9.35 billion for 49.75 km are two very different things.
- Check the construction and assembly part, not just the total. Here it is 54.05%, on the Brașov-Făgăraș Motorway 84.92%. The smaller the share, the more of the money goes on design, installations, consultancy and unforeseen expenditure.
Frequently asked questions
Does this mean that work is starting on the railway between Ilva Mică and Pojorâta?
How much does one kilometre cost?
From when are the 36 months counted?
Who pays and how much does each one give?
What connection does it have with the Pojorâta-Suceava segment?
Why does the Brașov-Făgăraș Motorway come into the discussion?
Does the sum include VAT?
From when does the decision take effect?
Editorial analysis
The decision is technically clean: the figures add up, the phasing closes the total to the unit, the legal basis is the right one, and the annex does not contradict itself anywhere. The problem appears only when it is set against another act of the same Government, published a month earlier. The Railway Infrastructure Development Strategy 2026-2030, published in Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 688 bis of 20 August 2026, contains a five-year financing table in which the Apahida-Suceava line appears only once, at position 30, with 24,647,000 lei in 2026, for a feasibility study and technical design, and with zero in 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030. On 24 September 2026, for a single lot of the same line, 10,491,323,000 lei are approved, of which 2,098,265,000 in the first year. The ratio between the two figures is 425.7 to one. It is nobody’s arithmetical error; these are two documents with different purposes, one for planning the money, the other for approving a ceiling. Only that, putting them together, neither tells you where the 2.1 billion of the first year comes from.
The second observation comes out of the same strategy, out of its list of priorities. There, the twenty railway projects on the core network are scored against five criteria. Ilva Mică-Apahida, the lot that has not yet received indicators, stands in 5th place, with 71.03 points. Suceava-Ilva Mică, the grouping to which the two lots with approved indicators belong, stands 18th out of 20, with 44.78 points, and the same strategy puts both segments on the reserve list of the Transport Programme. The order in which the money is approved is therefore the reverse of the order of priority established by the Government a month earlier. The plausible explanation is the maturity of the documentation, one of the five scoring criteria, but it cannot be seen in any published act.
The third observation concerns what the money buys. The share of construction and assembly, 54.05%, is the lowest among comparable objectives: 61.70% on the Pojorâta-Suceava subsection, 84.92% on the Brașov-Făgăraș Motorway in the same issue, 84.96% on the Buzău orbital road, approved on 21 September 2026. The rest, 4.82 billion lei, covers design, plant and equipment, consultancy, fees and miscellaneous and unforeseen expenditure, which the annex does not break down. On a railway with signalling, electrification and interlocking installations, a smaller share is natural. What is not natural is that the annex requires a single capacity indicator, the length, for an investment in which almost half the money goes on something that is not measured in kilometres.
The fourth observation concerns time. The value is expressed in prices of 5 November 2025, and the decision was published 324 days later. On top of that come 36 months of execution with no written starting point. The result is a ceiling in lei set at an exchange rate and a price level that, by the time of the first invoice, will be almost two years old. The comparison with the neighbouring segment shows the other face of the problem as well: the same line, the same company, two decisions, two price bases and two rates of execution differing by a factor of 2.17, without either of them saying why.
What should be changed
- The duration of the works should be tied to an event written in the act. A single sentence, of the kind „the duration of 36 months runs from the date of issue of the order to commence the works”, would turn the deadline from a decorative figure into a verifiable obligation and would give a reference point for the progress reports.
- The annex should show how much comes from European funds and how much from the State budget. Two lines with amounts, instead of a list of sources, would turn every indicators decision into information that can be used to follow absorption under the Transport Programme 2021-2027 and to estimate the national budgetary effort.
- The value should also be written in euros, as it was in the decision for the neighbouring segment. Decision no. 1.110/2025 had a euro column for the total and for construction and assembly. Reintroducing it costs one line and removes conversion errors from the press, from reports and from public debate.
- The capacity indicators should go beyond the length. The design speed, the number of tracks, the modernised stations, the bridges and the tunnels are precisely the elements that justify the price difference between two lots of the same line. The neighbouring decision, the one for the motorway, lists them over eight lines.
- The explanatory memorandum should explain the departure from the Government’s own list of priorities. When a government approves indicators for a project ranked 18th out of 20 and placed on the reserve list, while the one ranked 5th is left without indicators, the reason should be written down, if only in a sentence about the state of the documentation.
- Indicators decisions should also contain a mechanism for updating prices. The reference date is there, 5 November 2025, but the mechanism is missing. Without it, any increase in costs is settled by another decision, and therefore by another delay.
Original text of the legal act
The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.
The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania
Official Gazette of Romania no. 818 of 25 September 2026, page 7 16 pages PDF, 156 KB the act starts on page 7
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