The company would like Hyperion 3 to serve the Craiova-Sofia-Athens route but a problem needs to be addressed first, the lack of an electrified railroad section linking Craiova to Calafat. The railroad connecting the two is more than 80 years old and in poor condition.
“We are now working on the business plan. This includes the new route and especially securing funding. Craiova-Sofia-Athens would be a great route but we cannot get our train over the Calafat bridge because the Transport Ministry did not think the bridge must be available to trains, as well,” says Radu Zlatian, the official in charge of communication with Softronic.
The 1.8 kilometer bridge over Danube connecting Calafat (Romania) and Vidin (Bulgaria) opened for traffic in 2013 and cost EUR300 million. The company will not be able to use the Giurgiu-Ruse bridge, either, since railroad traffic between Bucharest and Giurgiu stopped about ten years ago.
The two Hyperion trains already made were sold to a company part of the same group, Softrans, which put them in service on the Craiova-Bucharest-Brasov and Craiova-Bucharest-Constanta routes. Zlatian says Softrans would need one more train on weekends at least on the Brasov route, because of the high number of passengers. The two trains are profitable. Softronic built its first electric train, funded by Garanti Bank with EUR4.3 million, last year and the second this year.
“We are looking for various types of funding – loan or leasing for Hyperion 3,” Zlatian said. Investment in a Hyperion train takes eight to ten years to recoup.
Softronic has almost 200 employees and is now selling its electric locomotives to Hungary and Turkey due to the lack of domestic demand. Although it is too soon to tell what route the new Hyperion train will serve, Zlatian says Softrans does not have a lot of options because Romania has not electrified any railroads since 1985. Which is why the company is unable to carry passengers to Cluj or Sibiu despite the potential of those destinations.
Romania had the eighth longest railroad network in the EU, almost 11,000 kilometers, at the end of last year, after Germany, France, Poland, Italy, UK, Spain and Sweden. Out of the 11,000, only several hundred have been upgraded and only 37.5% electrified, unlike Poland (60% electrified), Hungary (38%) and Bulgaria (72%).
Softronic budgeted 115 million lei (EUR26 million) revenue for this year, an increase of 4.3% on 2014. Net profit is estimated at RON3.5 million, up from last year’s RON2.7 million.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)