FOR THE SAKE OF TRAFFIC SAFETY
SPEED LIMITS
ARE A NECESSARY EVIL

EFFORTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN 1999

Trains circulating on the railway produce, over time, a degradation of the railway geometry and components. Infrastructure deterioration is normal and happens because of route characteristics, speed, traffic intensity, weight and type of the rolling stock. To maintain railway infrastructure within normal operating parameters, ample works is being done periodically. Railway sections with an advanced stage of deterioration that call for capital repairs require slower travel speeds, until the causes are eliminated.
To ensure safe traffic, the 1999/2000 train timetable includes speed restrictions with time reserved for maintenance works (lines, bridges, embankments, tunnels) and afferent installations.
The new traffic timetable had already included 392 speed restrictions, of which 145 with time reserves and 247 without reserves. Another 281 were added between May 30 - November 30, 1999, of which 101 with time reserves and 180 without reserves. Restrictions wre primarily imposed by the premature degradation, on some portions, of the embankments, and second, by calamities (floods and landslides) in the summer of 1999, which called for a temporary closure of traffic on some lines (e.g., Gura Motrului - Orsova). To make the necessary restoration on the damaged lines, speed limits were introduced in the 1999/2000 traffic timetable without repair times. Their impact was unfavorable, as it affected traffic regularity, with variable delays in arrival times, produced both by passenger trains and freight trains.
In order to improve traffic regularity, detailed analyses were made by division directors in regional railway companies, which revealed that, by the end of 1999, 203 speed limits should be elevated back to normal speeds, of which 72 with time reserves and 131 without reserves. In November 116 speed limits were lifted to normal speed, of which 46 were covered and 70 were not. These measures improved traffic regularity by 50%.
All these measures were adopted on the CFR network in order to provide safe travel. CFR - SA wants to maintain, for railway transportation, its quality as the safest existing means of transport. To achieve this, speed restrictions are needed in some conditions.
Over the course of 2000, according to the company's plans, repair works will be continued in areas that still have speed limits.

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