A trip on Moldova's STRANGE upgraded trains from the 1960s Iași to Chișinău 

Wow. An International train service in Europe with a lower average speed than the tram line being built in Copenhagen. It's good that tickets are as cheap as they are, but Moldova really deserves some investment in its rail infrastructure at some point. I mean Romanian trains are slow by European standards, but they look like the Shinkansen compared to this.

Tips for Romanian and Moldavian languages (same language). Whenever you see a "s" with that thing under it like in "Iasi" is spelled "sh", and the name becomes "Iashi" with the accent on a. The "Chisinau" also comes with a "Chi" in it, that is spelled "Ki", the pronunciation is "Kishinau" Other that that the video is super!

If you watch any RU-vid movies about the older trains in Moldova and the tracks then you get the point when you see swaying from left to right and up and down.....still very reasonable train tickets .....

Socola is most famous for it's mental asylum since 1889. In romanian instead of sayng "You're insane", ""You're mad", "You should get yourself a psychiatric exam", we simply say "You must go to Socola".

Train number 1052/822. On CFR 1052, on CFM 822😊

Very nice trains and the carriages do look very well maintained.

Really nice video. Loved seeing sights and train journey through a seldom seen country. Your English is great also.

Nice! 🙂 One important detail about Romanian/Moldovan words: hardly ever pronounce the "i" at the end, except if it is a plural after the letter "r" for example. There are several special characters, e.g. "ș" = "sh". (Approximately) "Iași" is pronounced "Yash", "București" - "Bukuresht" etc., "Chișinău" = "Kishinau", "Ungheni" = "Unghen", "Călărași" = "Kalarash", "Străşeni" = "Strashen", etc.

IIRC the maximum amount of wood still allowed on revenue trains under current european rail fire safety guidelines are just trim pieces not exceeding 100 gram per piece. That bistro bar does not look like a mere trim piece under a mass of 100g. Interesting. Maybe there are exceptions since, being russian gauge, it doesn't connect directly to any further EU-mainlines and could count as a standalone service within the EU, just like standalone lines are excempt from FRA-Regulation in the US.

Thank you.

Your videos are always very interesting! It would be great if you can add the date (Month/year) in your descriptions!😎

0:05 Tchiss-a-now?! : D Okay, thanks, bye

recomendation: change "huge upgrade" to "60 years old". I as a viewer dont care at all that a train I dont use and probably will never use had an upgrade. I might be interested in this modern looking train being so old though. thats my two cents.

I MUST try!!!!!

The Kiev train is still running?

i🔒n 🎗#Moldova in🔒

how is that train Could be from 1960s ?

Do moldovans have electric trains?

FIARE VECHI ADUNAM DAR SI CUPRU CUMPARAM

Moldova dosent use euro

its pronounced IASH .. KISHINAUW

It’s *Kee-shee-NOW,* not cheesy something. Ch in Romanian, Italian and some others = k, s with a comma underneath = sh Upd btw we in eastern/central europe call the peninsula Jutland yoot-land-(ia), not dshut-land like the Anglos do 😉 because some respect to the native pronouncing

Untill 2025 80 % of national rail is going to get repaired so train speeds will at least double.

train is quite dirty lol

It's a pity that the speed is so painstakingly slow, I guess it's a result of many years of poor maintenance of the tracks, unfortunately renovating them would cost a fortune for a modest country like Moldova. Other than that, I see a modern, clean and comfortable train up to 21th century standards, and beautiful and well kept stations. It also seems that trains are popular among locals, which brings me a smile. I'm happy they appreciate this type of transport and hope they will keep improving it in the future!

Although it may be slow im glad to see some positive changes coming to this country. I've been coming over evey summer to visit my grandparents for about 16 years.I still remember a few years ago they were still using an old USSR bus to go from their town to Chisinau. Now all the buses in their area are actually quite nice and well kept. Lovely country, people and culture

This train is not only rebuilt in terms of inner and outer design and amenities, it was also retrofitted with modern powertrain :)

Unfortunately the tracks through Moldova is really old, hence the slow speeds they do have that track scheduled for complete overhaul. So hopefully the journey will become significantly shorter

Is Romania the European version of Argentina? It is just like my country. The way the trains are delayed, the station with no help, slow trains, and the walk over the tracks to get to the station 😂

the plastic seats in second class are the same time of seats as in romanian doble deker wagons ..beacuse these trains were refurbished in Pașcani where a lot of pasager and freight trains are refurbished of even made ..there is a factory there . There was a article a year ago saing they will build the continuation of the larger guage line from socola straight to iași main station but no progress has been made its only like 4 kilometers of track or less they need to build but they cant even do that .Romania is like a third world country for westeners but we manage somhow . once i rode the romanian train wich goes from iași to ungheni and i meet a dude from germany who wanted to have as many stamps in his pasaport as posible .it was weird beacuse the train was empty and he chose to stay in my compartment but once we got to know each other we become frends .

Please, "Kishinow", not "Chisinow" (in pronunciation). Please!

It's a bit silly to include the border crossing wait time into the average speed. Being an actual border crossing, not like from within EU-EU countries (not even schengen) where is no border control, this should be mentioned as a separate time and deducted from the average speed calculation. Meaning the real average speed is 42 kph. (from your video it was a 1.5 hours of wait time at the border check) And i'd go even further to separate the romanian travel and speed from the moldavian side, to really see where the problem lies.

It's not Tschischinau. It's Kischnău.

It's much faster to take the frequent mini bus, which also calls at Iasi airport, which is handy, and terminates at Iasi central rail station. On the other hand, in Chisinau it starts and ends at the south-west bus station, which is a good half an hour from Chisinau city centre by local bus/trolley bus. The service to Kiev has only recently been re-instated after being closed for many years. Again, it's faster to take a bus or drive. Regular mini buses also run to Odessa. Direct flights between Bucharest and Chisinau take less than an hour. R (Australia)

“the station features a cute cat! Which I am allergic to so I will walk away”

The reason the train goes slow is mainly because there is only 1 train track going from north to south, so allot of cargo trains run along it, and because the main income is from cargo trains makes the passenger train run slower so that it won't slow down the cargo trains that pass trough. In the past passenger trains were used more often by the citizens, and the passenger trains would have to make a stop to let the cargo or other passenger trains pass, some stations have more than 1 track specifically for that reason.. nowadays the people use buses because its faster... Also another reason for this, is because lack of funding and corruption... i hope in the future the train system will get better, also would be good to have another train line running parallel.. but all this requires huge funding.

I like slow trains, maybe a bit faster than 30km/h would be great but I like slow trains. They are just more fun to ride :)

Train Barcelona-Madrid 500km 3h Train Iasi-Chisinau 126km 4h 25m

Great video mate keep them coming 👍

The thumbnail made me think for a second that this is my local operator KMŁ

28km/h on average, what a pathetic performance, can cycle faster

Stop pronouncing "tchishinau", it's actually "kishinau".

I knew absolutely nothing about railway services in Moldova. I know a whole bunch more thanks to Simon! Darned good job!

Oh man Moldova's got the snail express

Thank you so much for uploading this very informative video. I will be taking this journey in September, but in the opposite direction. Does anyone know if it is possible to walk from Socola train station to the centre of Iași city? My accommodation is approximately 5km from Socola train station.

So there are domestic trains in Moldova again? I thought Moldova's state railway went bankrupt a few years ago and there were only the two international routes left.

Nice video!

Tiszteletem..hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/D1_sorozat

no step free access to American trains either

Is this the same route the sleeper train travels to Chisinau...?

Ikke for at være nidkær, men på rumænsk udtales digrafen _ch_ som /k/, ikke som /tj/. Så den moldaviske hovedstad hedder dermed /KI-sji-næv/ og ikke /TJI-si-næv/. Mægtige hilsner fra Bukarest! :)

/IÁSH/ /KISHINÁU/ That's how you read them

And it's not Iassy either. It's Iash.

Story similar to polish "kibel" (en57).

By Post Soviet union country standards it's a great upgrade but by international, western, European or even Asian standards Grim It's like fitting a Larda with sat nav and go faster strips

I'm a big fan of the Russian railways and I can instantly tell this thing is a D1 just by its weird bogies. The D1 power car has asymmetric bogies where the one on the cabin side is significantly longer than the other.

And I thought Greek trains were bad.

Is that car still operating till today or did they changed it?

Wow a good cyclist could beat that trains speed 😂

Great and informative movie! Thanks :)

Thank you for the review.

1:00 You can get a cat allergic vaccination

How much would that journey cost in 3rd class?

Cool slow train, it was nice though

Wonderfull review :) thank you.

Very clean

it'll become quicklier when Moldova will join EU

🇲🇩👍

Great 👍

moldova has some interesting railways

It looks like Stone age when seeing from Russia. Good luck in EU! 🤣

How do people in wheelchairs board these inaccessible trains.

i am living in moldova and i have never heard of that

А где современный поезд-то? У нас Иволга и Сапсан 190 км/час едут на некоторых участках, а так медленно 165 км/час в среднем.

Strange you did not choose third class. So much more to criticize. Life is full of missed opportunities... just like all those train stations you mispronounced ...

I do not appreciate your "humour" or "sarcasm". You perhaps should explain better that the train stops for quite some time at the border crossing. to check passports, luggage and to prepare the train for different rail tracks. This all takes some time...if my memory serves me right, it's more or less 2h. It's funny that some dude makes these comments and leaves details out. :))

Oh, man, they were notorious for frequent breakdowns, but we also seen some of D1Ms in Ukraine, namely in Odessa :)