Part 1: Bucharest Gara de Nord to Chisinau
Overnight train (number 402) – 33 EUR for a bed in a 1st class 2 bed compartment
STD 7.15pm - STA 9.03am (travel time 13h48m)

To start my adventure meant that I would need to make to Chisinau first. From Bucharest that is very easy – with lots of daily departures by plane, train and bus. On this route I however prefer the train, as flights are relatively expensive and I hate buses and avoid them unless there is no other realistic option. Sure, at almost 14 hours the train takes forever due to a roundabout route and the ancient tracks which does not allow speeds higher than 50kph. That said, as the journey is overnight it is ideal for me as I can leave straight after work and arrive at my destination having had a good night of sleep.


The route of the Bucharest to Chisinau overnight train

There are two classes available on this train: couchettes (2nd class) which sleeps four people in a cabin is a steal at just 90 RON (19 EUR). A shared 1st class compartment which sleeps two people costs 156 RON (33 EUR), while such a compartment for single occupancy costs 284 RON (60 EUR). Tickets can be nowadays easily be booked online both on the Moldovan and Romanian railway websites.

I have taken the train a lot in the past, for both work and leisure – and it rarely gets full. Chances are big that whatever ticket you book you end up having a compartment all alone, although if you want to guarantee this you obviously need to book the two-bed first class compartment for single occupancy. On this trip I decided to risk it again and book just a bed in a two-bed first class compartment, hoping the other bed would remain empty.

Some thirty minutes before departure I arrived at Bucharest's Gara de Nord station – which is the city's main railway terminus. Even though the facade is quite impressive (albeit a bit dark) the station is quite derelict from the inside, and the neighbourhood in which it stands is far from the nicest of town, which is often the case with (European) railway stations. There are however more than enough (fast food) restaurants, two supermarkets and some small kiosks to eat a quick bite or to stock up on supplies for your journey.




Bucharest Gara de Nord – picture taken during a previous trip

Twenty minutes before departure the Chisinau night train was reversed into the station from the nearby railway yards.





The blue-and-yellow-coloured train is your typical Soviet train – it is quite a bit higher than trains commonly used in the rest of Europe. It was built in the early 1980s in the GDR – that's communist Eastern Germany – by VEB Waggonbau in Ammendorf. On the typical Bucharest-Chisinau run there are normally some 10 cars – one first class car with 2-bed compartments, some seven cars with 4-bed couchettes, and one restaurant wagon which normally only has some snacks and cheap booze and no serious meals (best to stock up in advance).





I was lucky again as even though I just paid for a bed in a shared 2-bed compartment (which you will always share with passengers of the same sex) and not for single occupancy, it turned out that the first class wagon was perhaps just 30 percent full and I would have the compartment to my own.

How to describe the compartment interior? Well, imagine if Donald Trump was a Soviet train designer in some alternate universe and how he would then have designed the interior. It has lots of ghastly gold, fake flowers and huge wall mirrors – the amount of kitsch just hurts your eye.







As you can see on the picture right above, there are actually rather nice classical seat cushions in Bordeaux red colours with a small golden motif hidden under the ghastly golden sheets which for some inexplicable reasons are used as seat covers. So basically the Moldovans remodelled the Orient Express into something horrifically looking.

In true Soviet-style you have to make up the bed yourself – this is typical for any night train journey in a former Soviet country, whether it is Ukraine, Russia or Uzbekistan. The pillow, bed and blanket cover are a complete mishmash of styles which whoever in charge seems to have picked up at the local dump store. That said, even if the sheets probably are in circulation for at least 2 decades, they were all clean and smelled fresh.



This is how the bed looks like after it is made up.



So while it might not be the most beautiful-looking train ever and everything is rather dated, it is quite comfortable and snug. The only drawbacks are that the bed is rather small in width and that there are no plugs (let alone WiFi – although some newer domestic Moldovan trains do have both). Another drawback is the lack of air-conditioning in summer. While this is not an issue in spring, autumn or winter (heating works well) the train can get unbearably hot in summer if the sun shines directly at your compartment window.

If you are not used to overnight train journeys and need perfect quietness to sleep then this is not something for you as the old train (coupled with dreadful track maintenance) makes for a lot of shaking and sounds. If you like being lulled to sleep by the sound of the tracks and the excitement of a journey and are used to such a way of travel (I do for sure) then you will sleep perfectly. Above all, just see it as an unique adventure!

For those who are wondering, this is by the way how the second class four-berth couchette compartments look like.


Second class four-berth couchette compartment with beds not yet made up


With the bed of the top bunk made up

The train arrived at the Romanian-Moldovan border on the River Prut at around 4.30am. Romanian border formalities are quite fast, it takes a bit longer in Moldova (vice versa if travelling the other way around, of course – especially as you are then entering the EU). Expect the border guards to briefly check if nothing is stashed away in the luggage storage areas of each compartment. They are however unlikely to search your belongings if you just have one backpack or trolley with you.

At the border railway workers also change the trains' bogies (wheelsets) as there is a difference in railway gauge between Romania and Moldova. Romania much like the rest of Europe has a standard gauge (4' 8.5") while the countries in the ex-Soviet union has tracks with Russian gauge at 5' (the only other exception is the gauge on the Iberian peninsula which is 5' 6"). The difference in gauge can be explained from a military perspective as it would require an invading army much longer to transport troops by train into the heart of Russia!

At the border, each wagon is jacked up one by one to have its bogies changed to accommodate the difference between standard and Russian gauge – a process that takes around a full hour until workers finished with every single wagon. While it makes quite a bit of sound you don't notice that much of it at all actually.






Pictures of the change of gauge/bogies change at the Ungheni railway border from a decade back when I did the reverse route Chisinau-Bucharest.

For this reason, it is actually be better to do the train in reverse route (Chisinau-Bucharest) as you can witness the change of bogies and the jacking up of your wagon a few feet in the air during daylight. As border formalities are also at a more humane hour, you have a much better sleep on Chisinau-Bucharest than you have on Bucharest-Chisinau.

After the entire border formalities and the change of gauge we finally departed the Ungheni railway border – from that moment there is just over two hours left to Chisinau. I managed to have a quick nap to wake up to some last bits of Moldovan countryside before we hit the Chisinau city limits.





Arrival at Chisinau's tiny central station was about 40 minutes late.



In short: While it might not be everyone's cup of tea, the train gives an unique insight in times gone by and is a unique experience on its own. Sure, luxury it is not – if you want that fly with TAROM or Air Moldova (one ways are most often priced around 120 EUR). The train is however dirt cheap even for sole compartment occupancy – and especially if going from Chisinau to Bucharest might be a great ride which allows you to sleep at night and arrive fully rested at your destination.

Next up: Exploring the Moldovan capital of Chisinau.