Căile Ferate Române (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈkə.ile feˈrate roˈmɨne]; abbreviated as the CFR) was the state railway carrier of Romania.

[2] The first railway line on Romania's present-day territory was opened on 20 August 1854 and ran between Oravița in Banat and Baziaș, a port on the Danube.

In September 1866, the Romanian Parliament voted for the construction of a 915 km (569 mi) railway, from Vârciorova in the south to Roman in the north, via Ploiești, Bucharest, Buzău, Brăila, Galați, and Tecuci, all important population centres.

The lines, which had a total length of 224 km (139 mi), would run from Roman to Ițcani, from Pașcani to Iași and from Verești to Botoșani.

Hence, by 1889, the Romanian state became the owner of all of the lines in the Kingdom of Romania, the railway system having a total length of 1,377 km (856 mi).

As a result, all railway lines in these regions, previously under the ownership of Austria-Hungary or the Russian Empire, were placed under the administration of CFR.

In the period between the wars, various other lines were doubled, including: During the 1920s and 1930s CFR also bought several new locomotives and cars, embarking on a plan of widespread modernisation.

Diesel traction was introduced, and the Malaxa high-speed DMUs (a modernised version of which are still in use as commuter trains in Banat) were built.

During World War II, CFR (Romanian Railways) was involved in the transport of Jewish and Romani people from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Regat to concentration camps set up in Transnistria.

[3] In a notable example, during the Iași pogrom events, Jews were forcibly loaded onto freight cars with planks hammered in place over the windows and traveled for seven (7) days in unimaginable conditions.

During this period, railways were seen as the symbol of Romania's rapid industrialisation under Communist leaders Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and later by Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Also, the railways in Southern Dobruja were left to Bulgaria in 1940 and the ones in Northern Bucovina and Bessarabia were ceded to the Soviet Union in 1947.

Various lines were also supplemented with double tracks to permit a wider flow of traffic, including: By the mid-1970s, steam traction disappeared completely out of mainstream use, being replaced by standardised diesel and electric locomotives and cars, most of which were built in Romania, at the Electroputere factory in Craiova, respectively Întreprinderea de Vagoane Arad (IVA) factory in Arad.

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, which resulted in the fall of Communism, Romania was left with one of the largest, most dense and most frequently used railway networks in Europe; but at the same time having relatively outdated infrastructure.

Several little-used routes, especially in rural areas, were cut back, and rolling stock, most of which was acquired in the 1970s, entered a period of disrepair.

CFR's image, both domestically and abroad, suffered greatly, due to reports of dilapidated trains, poor service and general disarray of management.

The narrow gauge line from Turda to Abrud, for example, could not hope to compete with the private car or bus, the journey time being just short of six and a half hours for the 93 kilometres (58 miles) trip (CFR Timetable 1988, table 309).

Between 1,000 and 1,500 km (620 and 930 mi) of railway lines have been divested of CFR control and a few have closed completely since 1990, most of which were in rural areas.

In the early 2000s, CFR began a modernization program to improve its image, which had been plagued both nationally and internationally by reports of poor service and outdated rolling stock.

To strengthen the growth of the Romanian InterCity network, CFR acquired in early 2003 several new Siemens Desiro train sets, some of which were assembled in Arad.

Part of CFR's modernization program is the XSELL project, which aims to introduce a Romania-wide electronic ticketing system.

The immediate consequence was the difficulty of moving on this route due to the works, the duration of a trip increasing by at least an hour and a half and leading to the dissatisfaction of travelers.

They are used for two main purposes, as shuttle, or commuter, trains, linking towns with neighbouring villages, and linking neighbouring cities with each other.Local trains (now Regio), have the lowest average speed (34.3 km/h in 2004) and the least comfortable (usually oldest) rolling stock, and have a reputation for being very slow, crowded and generally unkempt which is only gradually changing.

The livery of most Regio cars is painted in the color scheme of CFR Calatori (blue and grey), with the rolling stock built in the 1970s and 1980s.

Some very short rural routes in Romania's Bukovina region use rolling stock from the 1940s and 1950s, refitted with bus seats and operating like railbuses.

Despite the long distances, InterRegional trains tend to stop in every town (even though they bypass villages) and hence are very popular, though they are seldom used for express travel between two large cities.

Express passenger and international IC services, such as the Bucharest-Constanța route, use the Romanian-built Astra AVA-200 cars, which have a maximum speed of 200 km/h (120 mph) and are the most comfortable rolling stock in the CFR fleet.

According to class, these rail cars provide leather or fabric-covered armchairs, monitors, individual displays for every seat, 4 channel audio system with earphones, wireless internet access, bar, air conditioning, and they were equipped with an elevator for disabled travellers.

Most of the electric locomotives employed by CFR were built by Electroputere Craiova (known as EA-type) and Rade Končar Zagreb (known as EC-type).

Classes 60 and 62 have as prime mover a twin-bank cylinder Sulzer 12LDA28 diesel engine rated at 2100 hp@750rpm, being derated from its nominal power by a smaller turbocharger and a lower max rpm.