Checks remain at Romania-Hungary rail border

Although Romania joined the Schengen free travel area at the beginning of 2025, international trains are still running on unchanged schedules and waiting at border stations due to the inaction of the Hungarian Transport Ministry, local transport website kozlekedotomeg.hu reported.

Free travel zone entry delayed in practice

Romania and Bulgaria became full members of the Schengen Area on 1 January, 2025, after Austria agreed to withdraw its long-standing veto that had stalled their memberships, concluding a prolonged application procedure that had begun in 2011. The start of this year saw the elimination of land border checks for travellers from Romania and Bulgaria to other Schengen countries, following the earlier lifting of air and sea checks.

Romanian hauliers have long suffered delays at borders, with losses for the road transport industry estimated at EUR 19bn from 2012-23, due to impacts on trade, higher consumer prices, and even deterred investment, such as when German carmaker BMW chose Hungary over Romania for a new factory due to border inefficiencies, according to the Romanian Hauliers’ Association. However the current waiting times of around 40 minutes in both directions are “completely unjustified”, kozlekedotomeg.hu comments.

The Hungarian transport website adds that “it speaks volumes of the incompetence of the Hungarian Ministry of Construction and Transport, which commissioned the public rail service, that it has been unable to prepare the implementation of such a basic task, the modification of its railway timetable, in time and coordinate it with the relevant organisations,” it wrote in an op-ed.

“Of course, changing the timetable structure of international trains requires the coordination of numerous aspects between the railway networks, but there was plenty of time for this, since the opening of the state border had been a planned step for years. With proper preparation, the new railway timetable could have been implemented with a stroke of the pen,” kozlekedotomeg.hu added.

Delays on Puspokladany-Oradea line in focus

The website cites the Puspokladany-Oradea line, which is currently being revamped, meaning that international trains from Hungary will be unable to travel beyond Oradea for some years.

Reaching Oradea – a 25 minute journey from the Hungarian border – takes over an hour due to the 40-minute wait, despite no track capacity or timetable connection issues that could justify delays.

“We find it deeply regrettable that the Hungarian government, instead of restoring the long-desired transport connections at the border… connecting our (ethnic Hungarian) compatriots on both sides of the border, has proven incapable of even performing its basic public task,” kozlekedotomeg.hu concludes.