IN Brief:
- A Siemens Mobility led consortium has secured three Romanian signalling contracts worth approximately €308m.
- The work covers 560km of railway, 66 stations, 122 level crossings, and 13 central control centres.
- Decades old mechanical and electrodynamic systems will be replaced with modern interlocking and traffic management technology.
Siemens Mobility is to lead a consortium delivering three railway signalling modernisation contracts in Romania with a combined value of approximately €308m.
Working alongside ELSITEL and IMSAT, the consortium will upgrade infrastructure across roughly 560km of railway. Its scope includes 66 stations, 13 centralised operation centres, 122 level crossings, and more than 2,000 signals.
Construction and systems work will take place across sections managed through the Cluj, Timișoara, Iași, and Galați regional railway branches. Romanian state railway infrastructure manager CFR SA awarded the contracts following competitive procurement.
Existing electrodynamic and mechanical interlocking installations will be replaced with modern signalling, control, and traffic management systems. Much of the current equipment has remained in service beyond its original design life.
The programme is intended to improve safety, reliability, capacity, and operational performance. Modern control centres should give operators a broader view of train movements and allow routes to be managed across larger areas than is practical with dispersed local systems.
Marc Ludwig, chief executive of rail infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, said the projects would support Romania’s digital rail transformation and contribute to more dependable passenger and freight services.
Together, the contracts form one of the country’s largest coordinated signalling renewal programmes. Delivery will require surveys, design, equipment production, civil works, cable installation, power supplies, testing, commissioning, and staged transfer from existing systems.
Modernisation around an operating railway
Signalling replacement combines construction and systems engineering because most work must be completed while trains continue to run. Existing equipment cannot be removed before its replacement is ready, so old and new systems may need to operate alongside one another during parts of the programme.
Site teams will work across stations, trackside locations, equipment rooms, level crossings, and control facilities. Access will be governed by possessions, isolations, train movements, and railway safety rules, making logistics and programme coordination as important as the equipment itself.
Older mechanical and electrodynamic systems can remain dependable when maintained properly, but spare parts, specialist knowledge, and network capacity become harder to sustain as equipment ages. Modernisation allows functions to be consolidated and monitored digitally while increasing dependence on software, communications, and cybersecurity.
Centralised operation should improve traffic management by giving controllers a wider view of the network. Faster recovery from disruption and more efficient routing are possible, although migration must be planned carefully to prevent new control boundaries from creating operational gaps.
Level crossings form a particularly visible element of the work. Their controls must integrate correctly with signalling, road interfaces, obstacle detection where provided, and local operating conditions, while construction at 122 locations will require coordination with highways authorities and affected communities.
The programme forms part of a broader wave of rail investment across central and south eastern Europe. A €677m Croatian railway contract combines track, structures, stations, and related infrastructure within another major regional upgrade.
Romania’s programme is more heavily weighted towards systems, although substantial physical construction will still be required. Equipment foundations, troughing, cable routes, power supplies, buildings, cabinets, crossings, and interfaces with existing structures must be completed before software can control train movements.
Testing will form one of the most demanding stages because every route, signal aspect, track section, crossing sequence, failure response, and control command must behave as designed. The volume of equipment across 560km creates a substantial verification task, particularly where commissioning is divided into phases.
Skills availability may constrain delivery as signalling designers, testers, telecommunications engineers, installation teams, and experienced commissioning managers are in demand across Europe. Legacy systems must also be maintained by competent staff until the final changeover.
Standardisation across the three contracts could improve productivity by allowing common equipment, design principles, testing procedures, and training materials to be reused. Local track layouts, buildings, utilities, and operating conditions will still require individual solutions.
Once operational, the new infrastructure should support Romania’s effort to move more passenger and freight traffic from road to rail. Capacity improvements will also depend on track, structures, power, rolling stock, and terminals, but modern control systems are required to use those assets efficiently.
The €308m award gives the consortium a geographically dispersed workload across dozens of stations and crossings. Successful delivery will depend on balancing standardised systems with the physical and operational conditions of each location while keeping the railway in service throughout the transition.
