So this is probably going to end up being a long rant, but long story short, CFR staff/ my compatridiots sank to new lows. They stop the heating in the regular carriages with seats during the freezing winter night, then go to every person in there (and everyone in there has already paid for a ticket that should ensure traveling in decent conditions and that includes a carriage that's not colder than it's out in the open at the train station) and offer to upgrade to a couchette spot, where it's warm. They ask for 20€, 30€, 40€ or 50€ (round numbers, always) in exchange for this, depending on how much of a sucker you look to them and how desperate they are. Of course they don't accept card payment, of course it's all unofficial.
I'm furious, particularly after my recent trip to Sweden, which was such a wonderful fresh breath of... normality? You know, you pay for something and you actually get what you paid for and not some piss poor excuse?! Mindblowing, isn't it?
I can't believe I didn't figure it out on the way to Vienna, only on return. If I had figured it out before leaving for the return trip, I would have surely gone to the ÖBB office at the Vienna main train station and told them about it... maybe they would have cared? This is an international train, using the infrastructure, carriages and staff of three different companies (ÖBB from Austria, MAV from Hungary and CFR from Romania). The train ride itself belongs to CFR, but it leaves from a station that belongs to ÖBB and it also has ÖBB staff on up to the Hungarian border, when they get replaced by MAV staff, who stay on until the Romanian border.
So...
Sunday, 3rd of December. Train arrives to the platform, I try to open the door in the front of the carriage to get in, but I can't. The door is blocked, tells me a CFR employee sticking his head out the door of the carriage in front of mine. I want to go to the door at the other end where there's already a crowd but he stops me and asks me where I'm going. Vienna. On hearing that, asks me if I don't want a couchette spot instead, there are still free ones. Lol. If I had wanted a couchette spot, I would have booked one. I go to the other end of the carriage get on. Later, I see in my carriage a sheet of paper with handwritten advertising for the free couchette spots. Somehow, I don't make the connection between this and the heating stopping at night in the carriage. Or the fact that I hear other people offered couchette spots as well.
I don't think like a crook...
Someone from the MAV staff passes by shortly after Budapest and sees me... well, what he sees is a pile of clothes with eyes. I'm somewhere in there, the carriage had gone cold and no tinkering with the heating controls could help. Tells me something in Hungarian. I turn into a pile of clothes with big bovine eyes. I don't understand. He tells me in English the carriage that got added behind has heating and I can move there. Then goes to repeat this to everyone else in the carriage. Mass migration to the carriage behind. There are some fallen trees on the rails in Austria as that part of Europe got hit by the snow apocalypse, heaviest snow on record in Germany in December... so we get to Vienna with an 83 minute delay. But we get there and the original arrival time was too early for anything I cared about to be open anyway.
Friday, 8th of December. My train is due to depart at
19:42 and all seems fine until close to departure time. There's a RJX to the airport at 19:40 that gets moved to the same platform as my train. Just 2 minutes in between so I really wonder what that means for my train. With less than 10 minutes left to go, my train gets a new departure time.
My train is due to depart at
19:42 20:02.
It's also announced, 20 to 25 minutes delay. 19:52, I go up on the platform. No train yet. I move back and forth, it's very cold. The train configuration shown on the panel shows my carriage as being right where the stairs from the station end up on the platform, so I'm where I should be. At 20:00, I hear someone's disappointment. My train's delay gained 16 more minutes.
My train is due to depart at
19:42 20:02 20:18.
I go back down to the station, too cold to stay on the platform.
Down in the station, I stay next to the display at the base of the stairs going up to the platform. Eyes on that display as announcements say delays may change at any time. There's a train to Hamburg that's cancelled due to the strike in Germany. At least mine is just delayed and by just a little over half an hour. At 20:13, I go up on the platform and I almost instantly hear someone's disappointment again.
My train is due to depart at
19:42 20:02 20:18 20:32.
A 50 minute delay now. Go back down the stairs into the station, too cold to stay up out on the platform. Go back up at 20:27. Almost instantly, departure time changes again.
My train is due to depart at
19:42 20:02 20:18 20:32 20:45.
An over 1 hour delay already.
Go back down again, my back hurts as I've been carrying my backpack up and down and around for a while. So I go further back from the panel and support my backpack on a railing. Still a good view of the display. But then a group comes and stops in front of it and someone's head is blocking the new departure time for my train. Ugh. My poor back. Go back to the spot in between the stairs to the platform and the display. At 20:40, I go back up on the platform. There's a different carriage configuration now, my carriage is more to the front now and there are Budapest and Cluj carriages in between the Bucharest ones. Mhm, splitting this train is going to be interesting... My train's delay gains 5 more minutes.
My train is due to depart at
19:42 20:02 20:18 20:32 20:45 20:50.
I go down into the station again. The group is still there and it hits me they're speaking Hungarian. Same train as me? Likely not, there's another train going to Budapest, now delayed to leave from 20:55... from the same platform as mine. That's... interesting! That schedule cannot happen, 5 minutes is not enough time considering how much it would take for so many people with a lot of luggage to get on.
The Hungarians are discussing the same. I don't understand a thing, the only Hungarian words I know are "yes", "no" plus some foods and animals, but they're pointing to the same numbers on the panel that got my attention. One of them exclaims something and another dashes to get someone else from their group. The departure time for the train to Budapest has moved 5 minutes earlier, so they need to scramble to get on it. The departure time for mine has moved 8 minutes later.
My train is due to depart at
19:42 20:02 20:18 20:32 20:45 20:50 20:58.
The Budapest train finally leaves at 20:55. My train gets delayed again.
My train is due to depart at
19:42 20:02 20:18 20:32 20:45 20:50 20:58 21:08.
We passed the 21:00 mark. I go back down into the station, it's freezing up out there on the platform. A few more minutes down, then I go back up at 21:05. Still no sign of the train. Two girls are talking in German and it doesn't sound like they're from Austria or Bavaria, more like from somewhere in the North of Germany, can't really tell exactly. They keep moving and shivering. The train gets delayed again!
My train is due to depart at
19:42 20:02 20:18 20:32 20:45 20:50 20:58 21:08 21:13.
Over 1 hour and a half delay at this point. But I don't go down again, I move forward as the carriage configuration now means my carriage is a bit forward. The German girls laugh and one of them jokes that maybe it's going to be cancelled. Hey, don't jinx it, this one's not going to Germany!
But I finally see it coming. It's coming!
My carriage should be a Bucharest one, but has Wien Hbf - Cluj on it. It's the right carriage number, the same carriage number as on my ticket and I'm going beyond Cluj, but this carriage is labelled as only going to Cluj. Ah, whatever, it's a CFR carriage, it's going to Romania, plenty of time to clear it out before Cluj. And I can move if I need to. Find my seat, put my luggage up. A dude about 4 times my size and 40 times more panicked about the Cluj label on the carriage shows up in the same compartment and asks in a broken English if this is going to Bucharest. Well, it says Cluj, but my ticket is for this carriage and I'm going further than Cluj. I'll just ask and switch carriage if necessary. Not a big deal. I shrug. He's still worried. Talks about it with someone on the phone. In some Slavic language, no idea, they all sound the same to me. Asks a few more people passing along the corridor if this is going to Bucharest. Looks like a bunch of people are in this carriage as a carriage with the number they have on their tickets doesn't exist for this train. Yup, they got sold tickets to a carriage that eventually wasn't added to the train anymore.
Train leaves at
21:19. 1 hour and 37 minutes delay.
Both me and the Slavic dude notice the heating doesn't seem to be working. It's colder in the train than in the station. He has a lot more natural insulation than me, but seems to be suffering from the cold even more. Maybe I'm just better layered up.
A CFR employee opens the compartment door and I first think he's there to check tickets. He asks if we speak Romanian. I say yes, sure. Slavic dude also says he understands in a broken Romanian. We get asked if we want to sleep. Which gets a raised eyebrow from me. If we want a couchette upgrade, that's what he's asking. I say no, I don't want a couchette spot, I'd like to have heating in the carriage I reserved a seat in. He says he can't do anything about the heating in this carriage, just offer a couchette upgrade and it's warm there. 40€. I'm all "fun story, bro" as it's finally starting to hit me what's probably going on.
No fucking way. I don't have the money, but I'm a tough cookie, I have enough layers and my "fuck your mother's funeral cake, you ain't getting this your way, no way in Hell" instinct kicked in. The Slavic dude is a lot more receptive, he can't wait to get out of that freezer. The CFR asshole tells him to gather his luggage, the Slavic dude doesn't understand, but the asshole already left with the money in search of more
customers victims.
Once more, I'm a pile of clothes with eyes in a freezing carriage, just like on the way to Vienna. When we stop at the border, there's also a Budapest to Vienna ÖBB train stopped there. I see a girl in there. She took her coat off. Must be warm in that train. CFR are getting a truckload of money from the EU to unfuck the infrastructure in Romania to allow for faster train travel. Maybe when that happens, ÖBB will finally introduce those 2 or 3 trains from Vienna to some points in Romania. The long distance night trains NJ (NightJet) are the shittiest ÖBB has, but... you know... all is relative, including shitty. Shitty relative to their wonderful RJX (RailJet eXpress) trains, which are the nicest ones I've ever been on. At least you don't risk freezing to death in the NJ trains.
Back from the dreams of a better future...
Shortly before Budapest, a MAV guy comes to check tickets. The ÖBB people check tickets the way it's done in the German-speaking part of Europe. Once in a blue moon. Not this time. Trust is a thing there. But in Hungary and Romania, tickets always get checked. Trust is not a thing here. I tell him about the heating not working. He says he knows, his colleague is trying to fix the problem.
I don't notice any change in temperature any time soon, just lights on the non-functional heat control going completely off.
Budapest, with an even bigger delay than we left with. Close to 3am. We should have been in Budapest over 3 hours earlier. More people get on in the carriage, in the same compartment as me. First a tall and solid dude who takes his coat off. In that cold... some people are just built differently, man... Then a lady with curly hair. She keeps coughing. Then a dude who looks... like he's been through a lot! If you've ever seen a stray cat suffering from the cold in the winter... he looked kinda like that. We leave Budapest. The tall dude looks at the rest of us with pity and tries the heating controls. I tell him I had tried them too and they were not working. They still don't work.
The CFR asshole comes in the compartment and asks the lady if she speaks Romanian. She does. I'm shocked at how many Hungarians do. And ashamed I don't speak Hungarian. Makes the same offer - couchette upgrade. 20€. Well, that shrank fast from 40€ in Vienna considering the segment from Vienna to Budapest is so short. She asks if she can pay with a card, she has no euro. Not possible... broken. Of course card payment doesn't work, I think to myself. But payment in lei is fine too. She checks. She doesn't have enough in lei. Well, bad luck, she says, guess I'm staying here. She only has enough if she can pay with a card or cash with forints, but previously got told that's not an option, only cash with euro or lei. Suddenly, forints become good enough too for the CFR asshole.
The freezing dude says he wants a spot for 20€ too. The CFR asshole says sure, let me take the lady to the other carriage first. After they leave, the tall dude makes a sarcastic comment about this "business". The freezing dude tells us something interesting. He also got on in Vienna, but had a ticket for the missing carriage and stayed on the same number seat in this one until someone with a reservation for that got on in Budapest, so he moved to this compartment. And the interesting part... the CFR asshole first tried to sell him a couchette spot for 50€ when he got on in Vienna. Then tried again for 30€ after the initial refusal.
He's pretty talkative at times and mentions a few more interesting things. Liking Germany, learning the language later in life because he was taught only French and English in school... wow, no, Russian? I thought it was mandatory during communist times. Oh, he mentions he's only a couple of years older than me. That explains it. At the time he started with the first foreign language it was right after the revolution... he looks so much older! Then he mentions some really nasty health problems. And that's when I really get pissed. Life in Romania isn't too healthy. Life expectancy here is under a decade lower than in Sweden, but
healthy life expectancy is some two decades lower! I'm still lucky, but most people my age or older are in poor health. And such assholes are preying on these people and letting them freeze unless they put some extra money in their pockets.
I don't feel as cold, probably from the anger. I ain't letting this slide. I unwrap my feet out of the poncho/ blanket, get in my boots again, so I'm ready to go out the door when the CFR asshole comes again. I should pass close enough again to see his name tag. I ain't letting this slide. But that never happens. So no name, just a "fat, medium height old dude" description. It's not from the anger, the carriage is really heating up. Guess the Hungarian staff really did something. And the carriage staring to heat up was probably also the reason why the lady only got asked for 20€ and why forints were suddenly good too. They were trying to squeeze as much as they still could before the carriage would get warm and people wouldn't be desperate to get out of there anymore. Then it was day when we got into Romania.
We left Vienna with a delay of over an hour and a half, which doubled by the time we got to Budapest... and then arrived on time?! After the train went with the speed of a snail for the final 90 minutes of the journey? 90 minutes before the schedules arrival time, we were 57km away. 57km in 90 minutes. That's an average of 38km/h!!!
Now I'm seriously wondering if the delay in Vienna wasn't intentional too, so that people would be tired and freezing by the time they get on the train. And more likely to make bad choices. Like giving into blackmail. Plus, that had us leaving at a later and colder hour. Seriously wondering if the increased time on the Austrian segment wasn't also intentional, as the Austrians are more carefree and less likely to be meddling than the Hungarians. Make sure most of the night part of the travel happens in a space where they can get away with shit.
So yeah. This was my return trip.