Chinese-built CRRC train cleared to run in Romania
ROMANIA: A CRRC Sifang train ordered by private operator Astra Trans Carpatic has received type and placing-in-service authorisation from Romania’s rail safety authority ASFR. The approval clears nearly five years of legal disputes over China’s access to the Romanian market and opens the way for commercial service.
ASFR issued the authorisations to Astra Vagoane Călători, the Arad-based sister company of operator Astra Trans Carpatic. The CRRC Sifang SFEMU unit, fully compliant with EU interoperability standards (TSI), is now cleared to operate on the Romanian network.
Astra Trans Carpatic expects to begin commercial service in July, starting on the Bucharest–Brașov route via the Prahova Valley. Astra Vagoane Călători still needs a maintenance entity certificate from ASFR before passenger operations can start.
A five-year legal battle over market access
In 2021, a bidding consortium of CRRC Qingdao Sifang and Astra Vagoane Călători was excluded from a Romanian tender for up to 37 interregional electric multiple units. The exclusion came via a government ordinance barring firms from countries without public procurement agreements with Romania from EU- and nationally funded tenders.
CRRC and Astra Vagoane Călători challenged the exclusion in court. The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled in July 2025 that Romania could not exclude the consortium from the tender, finding the restriction incompatible with EU procurement rules.
That ruling cleared the legal path for CRRC Sifang’s train to proceed through technical authorisation in Romania — a separate process from the European Commission’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation cases, which examine state subsidies rather than procurement access.
The CRRC Sifang SFEMU-EU01 unit arrived in Romania via the port of Constanța in April 2024. A maintenance facility for the train has been set up at the Astra Vagoane Călători plant in Arad.
