EIB signs EUR 266m loan for Bucharest tram upgrade
ROMANIA: The European Investment Bank has signed a EUR 266m loan with the city of Bucharest to modernise a tram network that the bank says carries 500,000 passengers a day, with approximately 50 km of track and 63 new vehicles in scope.
The agreement, signed by EIB Vice-President Ioannis Tsakiris and Mayor Ciprian Ciucu, forms part of a broader EUR 300m EIB loan package supporting a EUR 1.3bn urban mobility and energy programme for the Romanian capital.
The financing covers track renewal across approximately 50 km of routes, modernisation of Colentina depot, and procurement of 63 new light rail vehicles, with all works scheduled for completion by 2030.
Loan structure and programme scope
The three components address the network’s main operational constraints. Track renewal across approximately 50 km of routes will remove speed restrictions on ageing infrastructure; Colentina depot modernisation will support fleet maintenance capacity; and 63 new light rail vehicles will expand and replace rolling stock on a network that has operated for more than 50 years.
All three workstreams carry the same 2030 completion deadline, setting a fixed delivery window across the programme.
The EUR 266m tranche is the second under a EUR 300m EIB loan to Bucharest. An earlier EUR 34m tranche covered the energy component of the same programme, financing replacement of 106 km of district heating pipelines.
Both tranches sit within a EUR 1.3bn investment programme covering urban mobility and energy supply across a metropolitan area of more than two million people.
Fleet procurement still to be tendered
The 63 new light rail vehicles represent the programme’s largest single procurement decision. Bucharest’s annual procurement plan lists an estimated tender window of January to June 2026 for the vehicles, but no tender has been launched.
The city’s most recent fleet addition — 100 Imperio units delivered between 2022 and 2024 by a consortium of Romanian manufacturer Astra Vagoane Călători and CRRC Qingdao Sifang — gives the new procurement a recent reference point, but the tender will open a fresh competition.