Railways of Moldova will keep its standard gauge

The Railways of Moldova (CFM) will not change in the near future its gauge in order to align it with the European one, despite of the existent problems with Russia and pro-Europe statements. CFM Manager General and Minister of Transportation and Road Management, Miron Gagauz, announced about this within a press conference on the occasion of celebrating 135 years since CFM was created. Regarding the issues related to the railway traffic in the Transnistrian region, Gagauz says that CFM is ready to re-start the goods and passengers’ transportation in this zone at this very moment, if the separatist authorities give back the seized property of the enterprise, and promise not to interfere in CFM activity. According to him, over 150 wagons remained in the region, as well as 800 employees of CFM. According to the minister, one of the priorities of the enterprise is to open a plant producing ferroconcrete crossties, with a capacity of 100,000 ties, at the price of 18 USD per unit. Now CFM buys these ties at the price of 30 USD. Gagauz also stated that annually CFM has losses of about MDL 1 mln because the passengers avoid paying the travel fares, the passenger transportation being a non-profit branch of CFM. Annually, about MDL 36 mln from the incomes gained from goods’ transportation are allocated to subsidize this branch, representing 60% of CFM profit. The minister highlighted that now CFM has liquidated all the foreign debts, except those to the Russian Federation, totaling 96 million lei. According to Gagauz, this debt will be liquidated during the next 2 years. CFM was founded on August 28, 1871, when the railway joining Odessa-Razdelinaia-Tiraspol with the railway Tiraspol-Chisinau was opened. On 1 August 1874, the railway Iasi–Ungheni was launched, joining the railways of Romania with those of Basarabia and Russia. Now the length of the railways of Moldova is of 1,075 km, including 11,6 km with European gauge.