CFR Călători Declares National Walking Era: All Trains to Be Pushed by Hand Until Budget Passes
Romania's state railway has ordered every locomotive to be manually pushed along its route by teams of volunteers, in a dramatic escalation of its budget standoff.
CFR Călători has ordered that from Monday, every train on every route will be pushed by hand by teams of volunteers recruited from station platforms, after the carrier entered its 258th day without an approved budget.
The Ministry of Transport confirmed that the pushing rota will run around the clock, with each stationmaster required to assemble a crew of at least forty passengers per departure. «We have calculated that a full train can reach ninety kilometres per hour if enough people lean into it,» a ministry official said. «The timetable remains unchanged.»
At Gara de Nord, a test run of the Bucharest–Brașov service was completed in eleven hours by a rotating chain of commuters, who were issued numbered vests and a half-time orange. The station has installed a permanent grandstand and a loudspeaker that calls out the next push in three languages.
Neighbouring countries have reportedly asked whether their own trains might be pushed through Romania for a fee, and the finance ministry is now studying a proposal to convert the entire national network into a pedestrian corridor with sleeper benches every twenty metres.
By Thursday, the first through-pushed express is scheduled to leave for the coast, with the railway promising that anyone who stops pushing will be asked to push harder.
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