European Railroad Discussion > Tram Tuesday — Galati, Romania

In mid-November, 2017 I passed from Ukraine into Moldova (for 3 kms) into Romania.  

At this point I had spent two full months in the former USSR.  And the transition to Romania was dramatic!  Everything was lit up!  Roads were modern.  Strings of LED lights going out along roads through the countryside.  Everyone was in a hurry.  Nobody wanted to chat.  It was the biggest culture shock experience of my life.  I didn't much like it.  It turns out the the former Soviet Republics are super-chill places.  And I had grown so accustomed to it that I forgot what it was like in a fast-lane part of the world.  

Galati didn't have many redeeming factors.  It was just a node on my string of beads that I travelled along, a very loosely planned route from Kazahstan to Bulgaria.  

The first tram line I came across had been decomissioned.  It made me all the more depressed about the scene.  The tracks were still there, but no overhead wires, and certainly no trams.  Later, after spending a frustrating hour at the train station (though I always like spending an hour at a train station, even if frustrated), I was pedalling through the city to find the hotel I had booked on bookings.com, and I happened upon a rattly old Soviet-era tram plying the streets.  It immediately brightened the world for me.  And I got settled in my room, then headed out to take a ride.  

Galati, Romania. November 2017.  

https://opentopomap.org/#map=14/45.44005/748.04458
Medium size city, the last industrial city on the Danube.  It's mostly delta from here to the Black Sea, with Romania on the south bank, and Ukraine with a sliver of Moldova on the north bank.  

https://www.opencyclemap.org/?zoom=13&lat=45.44184&lon=28.04423&layers=B0000
Not a lot of cycle routes in these parts.  I came in from Reni, Ukraine and went out to the south to Braila.  (From there I took a train to Bucharest)

https://goo.gl/maps/TBnaY5djQqtfmA6B8
Not a particularly scenic city, but nice enough.  

There is an anormous heavy industrial complex to the west of the city, I see... 
https://en.mapy.cz/zakladni?x=28.0022329&y=45.4390420&z=13

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=45.43212970756326&lon=28.04286003112793&zoom=13
I still haven't figured out the rail system here.  Galati is a big rail city.  40 kilometers to the east Ismail is the end of the main Ukrainian rail system.  There's no particular reason why the two systems shouldn't be connected.  But they're not.  Reni, Ukraine has a Russian gauge line that runs north through Moldova.  (There was no consideration give, in Tsarist or Soviet times, to have rail lines stay in one republic or another.  They cross boundaries a lot in some areas, making a much less efficient modern rail system if the republics no longer get along).  

The rail line from Bucharest to Odessa would be much less mountainous if they had connected Galati to Ismail...  Moldova is all mountains... The Danube delta is flat.  I'd think that for just general freight commerce the Soviets would have connected Romania to the USSR on the banks of the Danube.  

Thoughts, questions, observations?  

Ted in OR



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/22 19:50 by gobbl3gook.

---

---

---

This is how the operator would throw the switches.  

Wikipedia says the entire system has been rebuilt since I was there.  

Random tidbits from a Google search

https://second.wiki/wiki/strac39fenbahn_galac89bi

http://tramways.blogspot.com/2011/10/galati.html

https://www.urbanrail.net/eu/ro/galati/galati.htm
(In Nov 2021 there was only one line in service :^(



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/22 19:34 by gobbl3gook.

---

---

---

Bonus pic, scene at the train station.  

*2017*

---

Really enjoying your tram series. One can always tell not only by the trams, but also the buildings, cars, and attire of the people that this is Eastern Europe and part of the former Soviet sphere of influence.

Nice photos!