5:10 I'm involved in the arduous task of maintaining the electronics of these ever-breaking train sets. I'd say that you had the misfortune of being in a train that had its displays broken. Most of the train sets have them in good working order, as the old control system is slowly getting replaced with a new locally-made one. The seat reservation displays should display the route the seat is currently reserved for, and the in-carriage and external displays show the train number and complete route. Some DSB workers were even amazed we got them to actually work, as I've been informed they've had plenty of issues with them in Denmark.

As crappy as everyone thinks these trains are… this is 100% better than any train we have in the US. (Excluding Brightline)

As a Romanian train enthusiast and one that travelled all the Romanian Rail lines in 2 years, I've never managed to travel with this train but I am considering it in the future. Thank you for your great video, BIG LIKE! Cheers and greetings from Romania. 😎👍 Patrick

from strictly a customer perspective i was really happy with the service, comfortable, reliable, toilets were clean (that's a problem on romanian trains), overall a great experience and for a great price

I think this train is just fine from passenger's prospective. Clean interior, good toilets, not noisy inside. Much better than ancient Malaxa used on diesel lines in Romania

I still after all these years don't understand what the heck was wrong with them... liked and subscribed (y)

Oh yeah, when I went from OTP airport to Gara De Nord, I used one of those trains but a bit smaller I think

I took it once from Predeal to Bucharest while on a rail trip in the Balkans and they seems to be doing pretty well there

The funny thing is, i recall only one article telling people about how troublesome these trains were in Denmark in the Romanian mass media but hey, one mans trash is another mans treasure. Over here in Romania it doesnt matter if it was bad, we're fine with it cause its not what we currently have. Reminds me of people still buying used clapped out cars from Germany and finding excuses to say they're better despite being plagued with issues Still, personally, the interior looks better than the Desiros we have here, which are terrible in every way. They want to bring the IC4s here too.

Travelling by train in Romania 🇷🇴 is definitely an adventurous ❤ and enjoyable 😀 experience that offers you the chance to know better the country and its inhabitants … 🙂🙂🙂🙏 I just had also a such experience from Bucharest to Suceava. Just posted ❤🙂🙂🙏🙏

Used to live in Denmark. This sort of train was used between short distances of 50 60 km such as Odense to svenborg .

“Biggest fiasco that’s happened to the Danish Railway.” Mate, as a fellow Dane, the railway company IS a fiasco. They practically run the railway on the bare minimum, and when something goes wrong, it cascades through the entire day until night. They have no ability to try and fix delays or similar, crisis management is just… non existent. I once had to wait over half an hour for a train that wasn’t large enough for all the waiting people when there were literally four at the station that were bigger and didn’t move anywhere, two of which were already on, so it really shouldn’t have been hard at all to switch it around. They’re not very popular these days.

Excellent video - many tanks for this video. Was good to see a bit of Bucharest in addition to the old Danish trains. Really great effort you went all the way to Romania to make the video. I should check the rest of your feed, but I hope you had some good train trips on the way.

Man! These trains have had a tough time, but I am glad they found a new home!

I am very delighted to see this video. Many thanks for the support, and hope you will upload more videos like this one. I wish you a good day !

I'm glad YT recommended me this video. As a Romanian train geek and trainspotter i really enjoyed it

I have been from Buchareşti to Braşov Timişoara to both, and Timişoara to Budapest. No complaints

I rode the IC2 a few times between Hamburg and Copenhagen. What I remembered the most was the persistent stinky smell of diesel fuel and exhaust that permeated throughout the carriages. The windows couldn't be opened at all, and at some stops, some of us would pile outside to take in the fresh air quickly before boarding the train. The only upside is how comfortable the seats are.

Good video with beautiful landscapes. Romania is a beautiful country❤️. Greetings from ❤️Freiburg Germany🇩🇪 (by Tram through Freiburg)

Oh nice to see that the old Dutch trains are still in service !😊

The thing is , astra trans carpatic is owned by the same guy who owns astra vagoane arad , which is a local rolling stock manufacturer. I actually got to travel with both type of trains from their fleet , the ic2 and the locally built train with a locomotive and cars. The local made train was far superior to the ic2 and a huge plus in my books , it was electric. Last summer, when I traveled with astra to the sea side , I got on a IC2 , it was horrible , the lights we're flickering , the doors between cars wouldn't open , or they would actually close when someone was passing , and the train could bearly pull away from the platform, it seems they have a huge issue with the electrical system , and the transmission between the engine and the controls was awful , leaving the train lagging a lot.

When I first start riding with AstraTrans, these trains blew my mind. They were so clean, well maintained and modern, specially compared to other CFR cars and trains that are so old and dirty. But now I saw that they have some problems with the AC Systems.. the restroom were ok when I needed to use them tho. Some small corrections: Correct me if I'm wrong, but the IC2 are actually made in Italy. Also, when the train set was leaving the Bucharest Station, I don't think it was struggling at all. All the trains operate at that embarrassingly low speed when in and out the main station. The tracks are so old and destroyed that you cannot cruise faster through them. Nothing new for us.. The actual distance from Bucharest to Brasov is 166km, and the price you showed.. It's weird, it was always way cheaper than that. That was also a good thing going for AstraTrans some years ago.

I would love to travel to these beautiful Romanian cities ☺

I just travelled with the same train today, and I can safely say, considering the quality of the other trains here in Romania, this one is gold.

You were lucky to have them functioning. :D Yes, in terms of comfort are far by a long margin to the rest of the trains in RO. However what disappoints me the most is the unpredictability of the service. Imagine paying full fare, like on a normal CFR Călători InterRegio train, only to find out that trainset failed in the middle of nowhere, with no support from any trains there are passing through the area. Unlike CFR where you get 2-3h delay & eventually get to your destination without any extra fees, here for Astra TransCarpatic there's no such "luxury". Best regards,

Travelled from Câmpina to Brasov in one of those. Confortable journey. I had read about the issues of these trains prior to my trip but I was quite pleased. If Astra Transcarpatic can offer a reliable service and afford the costs of repairing them, then it seems they made a good deal. Owning also a rolling stock producer also helps in this case. They can fix them faster. We have to take into consideration that the speed regime is much lower than the one the trains were intended to operate in Denmark. They slowed quite a lot in the mountains, I don't know if that is normal also for other trains. Pros and cons.

One of the many failures of AnsaldoBreda. We all know what happened to the Fyra trains between Netherlands and Belgium. They ran only for 40 days because of horrible reliability.

I am from Romania and I can say that trains such like this one are for romanians like a ray of hope that railway transport can be again a cheap comfortable and civilised experience. In communist era, railways were the best and cheapest transport system, despite being in old trains often crowded and not very comfortable... Everyone could afford it and went everywhere with regular services. After the fall of communism, decades of corruption and neglect , together with bad propaganda made exactly by the corrupt politicians deliberately, made railway transport almost completely dissapear.... Rails almost never maintained for decades, with many accidents and unbearable speed limits, old uncomfortable wagons almost not maintained at all , irregular services that made some towns without trains or with only 1-2 trains per week, bad conditions and often for unacceptable and expensive prices... So as bad propaganda was tweeting, it was "a must" to sell all this useless railway system that nobody needs anymore" to a " Strategic foreign investor".... Basically the corrupted sold most railway transport to fraudulent international actors at scrap price.... And those, instead of investing to develop it, sold all wagons and infrastructure for scrap at huge profit, destroying national infrastructure in the process.... The rise of private transport companies such like this, that bought trains at their own expense and rented the state owned network to operate them, all of a sudden showed that it is possible to have decent railway transport, in decent conditions, at regular service and cheap prices, almost "impossible" for the romanian state of mind.... And the rent they pay is a source of income for the still surviving national railways company too... Little by little, train transport is being ressurected in Romania by such trains, hope is not lost .... .....Btw , unlike some nations that get offended when badly pronouncing in their language, us the romanians in fact consider it funny when foreigners mis-spel our words 😁... And often we are proud that they even give it a try to pronounce them at all.... As a proof of respect they show us 😅🤣🤣🤣🤣 Thank you! ✌️😁

It would be interesting to hear in future videos about the gauge differences between origin and destinations and possible respective changes that had to be made. Thanks.

How refreshing to see a video from Romania that doesn't mention Top G! I rather enjoyed your pronunciation of the place names, which was perfect for all I know.

Supee video, nice ride! Big LIKE Greetings from Dublin Andrew

Velkommen til Simon . I hope you will take the train from Brașov to Deda or further . The landscape is very beautiful . Check the station Băile Tușnad ☺️✋🇩🇰🇷🇴

3:00 Are you sure it's really "struggling"? These trains use mechanical transmissions, basically like a bus would, so a gear change sound is to be expected.

WOW....excellent Video! BIG LIKE!

Great video!! Please make about CFR călători trains in Romania!! Grettings from Romania!!!

1:37 the cfr (romanian national railway) jingle

Thanks for this interesting video!

Great video with beautiful landscapes. Romania is a beautiful country( except for the stations)

Honestly I liked the comfort this train offers but it stopped in the middle of nowhere for five times and they refused to allow us leave the train catch an alternative train until Sinaia. We have various problems with old trains in Bulgaria but such issues with a failing EMU/DMU so often en route is something Ive first experienced with this train. I changed to Regiotrans 70s former SNCF DMU which was in a catastrophic condition in terms of cleanliness and safety such as non closing front doors but at least it succeeded to transport me to the final stop.

Beautiful train 🚆 Cheers 👍

I can see you have problems to pronounce the name of the train station you pass all the way to Brașov, glad to hear about accesability on the Romanian trains. I love to tell us more. It is a nightmare as a disabled person to travel around Europe and to find out the inconvenience of accessibility. In my opinion the Brașov train station is so ugly never change from the time I was living in Brașov. I was born in Brașov Transilvania 1958. The city is beautiful but puts people off about the train station

Overusing this DMU on the Bucharest to Brasov rail, especially in the summer will cause to break down, happened quite a few times last summer, most of the time on or after the steep incline from Timisul de Sus to Predeal.

I think I must make a trip to Romania at some point. They've got so many trains that have been withdrawn from service in the rest of Europe, UK - maybe even further afield, I'm not sure. Nice to see these trains getting a second life.

Been To Brasov un 2016. Not this way. But it is a very impressive city and setting indeed. When can I go back? 🤔😁

I managed to use one in Denmark, going home from Roskilde to Taastrup once, and it didn't fail during that!! But the new Siemens Vectron trains seems not to be functioning that much better for now? 🤨🤔

Thankfully, most of the train stations are getting reworks in the following years, Bucharest being the most notable. Also, good thing you didnt continue going up north, because the tracks from Brasov to Sighisoara are so bad, you do 100km in 3h30. ( Current works to redo it completely ).

Thanks to visit my country

As a dane i hate those seats ...... The funny thing is that is know the guy in charge of the what was dsb maintenance of theese units and now he is a engineer on the most easterly island group a self chosen exile

your intro mentioned "the biggest train fiasco." yeah, you should definitly look up the fyra trains in Belgium ;)

Thanks for the video, Simon. Indeed, I am now in a garbage train of this, and already one hour behind schedule from Brașov to Bucharest, and had great difficulties in starting and keep it going. It is such a shame to live in Romania... everything is like this. 😔 Hope you don't have much more garbage in Denmark, because for sure, it will be bought as "luxury" here. 🤣🤣🤣🤦‍♂️

Cool video. Maybe next time you could review the IC4s in Libya😂

I was looking for the video of your return trip with CFR but I didn't find it. Have you forgot to publish it?

Travelled in Romania in Trains from Sibiu to Brasov to Bucharest. It was like travelling in old trains in India

Should of told me you were coming to Brasov, would of shown you the pretty part of the town. ^_^

I can't find the return video on the CFR train ?

For all who complain about Romanian trains : As a child i would go from Poland via USSR to Bucharest . In Poland and USSR the train was pulled by steam locomotive ..... As we would enter Romania we were connected to ultra modern Romanian diesel locomotive . I never forget its low , powerfull sound .

the BEST method is to use the Caluta... ...

Loved your pronunciation 😂😂😂 Skall from Herning ❤

If they are buying up the old IC2's? Its likely for parts.

Biggest train fiasco? The Dutch say hold my beer and I will give you the Fyra 🤭

Well, I mean Its not hard to have a clean toilet if it not used, so yeah.

Are these the same trains they use on Oslo Gardemoen Flytoget shuttle?

When is the new Romania episode coming out?

I'm ashamed to be Italian, luckily Ansaldo Breda no longer exists. Belgium, Holland and Denmark should be compensated with new free trains ,the whole company was bought by Hitachi and has been completely modernized, now producing excellent trains.. . it is incredible how much damage this company has done to these countries and the damage to Italy's image. I am sorry...

As a train enthusiast it‘s just pain to hear the engines while accelerating when yo know how good diesel-engines should sound like. I really wonder what went wrong there.

What were the reliability problems with these trains? Why were they not fixable? 😮

The original IC2 trains made by ADtranz in Randers were much better than the new ones

But why do they run those diesel-units on a fully electrified rail-line?

Superb presentation ! Congrats !

Electroputere Craiova FTW.

For the algorithm. Greetings from Romania. :)

1:04 Uhm, what did you say there? I couldn't understand a word.

Romania Is a very mountainous country, trains cannot travel at very fast speeds because the infrastructure is ( old AF, not well maintained ) designed with lots of bridges curbs and narrow passages. It wouldn't be safe to travel at high speeds through the mountains.

Det er sku helt surrealistisk og se dem der

Jeg var i Bucharest, Ploiesti og Brasov i december, og gud hvor ville jeg bare have ønsket jeg havde set de der tog...

@Jeg er pizza? Interessant Twitter-navn. Er du dansk?

nobody is gonna talk about the fact that the cab door was open.

3:34 Dude didn't even try to google the pronounciation! 😂

Nice! 🙂 Simple to memorize for Romanian names: don't pronounce the "I" at the end. Plus, there are some special characters like "ș". So, it's: "Ployesht", "Bushten" or "Brashov", for example. Pity the mountains were partly in the clouds, that's what they look like (back in 2018, Astra Trans Carpatic only operated a train with 1 engine and 1 couchette car on this line): kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eM2XnM5puM-xeZc.html

IC4 trains were bought by a different private operator (TFC)

Balkans and maintenance....

Softrans are much better trains than Astra Railways but they are only on route Craiova - Bucharest - Brașov - Constanța

Uitati ce trenuri ca lumea avem trebuie sa ne sprijinim an ce facem la noi si noi avem oameni inginer tecnicieni cu idei dar nu sant ajutati

I use these trains every day in Denmark. They were conceived for no electrified railways.

Balkan express? Show it, Budapest -Bucharest. Not coming to see Indian Railways? One among the biggest and busiest in the world.

Absolutely horrible trains. They are vastly inferior to anything that the state railway has. Your are lucky you have reached the destination as this things as they usually suffer some catastrophic failure (not even reaching Predeal which is around 30 Km away from Brasov). These junk trains ( as called by rail enthusiast here) almost always gets broken down and leaves its passenger outside to figure on themself how to reach destination. From engine problems to brakes problem they are absolutely horrendous. We have become the railway trash bin of Europe where private companies bring the all the scrap metal from outside and run them here.

I thought that nation had suffered enough...

A train that is supposed to be running at 200, but only can barely make 70?! How ineconomical is that?!

I always try to forget how disgusting Gara de Nord is. It's embarassing tbh.

my language it’s Romania so I’m at danish

It's giving IC4

🚄👈🏽

Do you know what is the biggest problem in this case? Nobody cares about the pollution, running on diesel on an electrified railway, that's the biggest stupidity! It's like having a Tesla but charging it with a diesel generator.

Using diesel traction on an electrified line makes little sense. 🤢

Better than the LRC cars in Canada.

after getting train from bucharest to brasov so many times in ww2 era trains these are amazing lol

A Diesel train that runs under overhead lines all the time? Nice Video Follow on Twitter Check

Umm I ride that train to Brasov every year, twice per year. That train is 10 times better than any other train in US. Every train I’ve taken in the US is nothing compared to Astra. And this is based on the fact that the Romanian trains are really old and crappy. Also, the train does not take long to take off. They have specific requirements for speed and distance and loads.

Wanna see how the old trains looked like? These trains are like "Yoooo, we're becoming a modern european country????"

3:33 haha, nice try on the pronunciations