The reference book that the internet almost took off the market. In 1983, over a million copies were printed, now it has reached less than 30,000. It's not the Phone Book

One of the best-selling books in Romania of the 20th century has almost disappeared from the market. Printed in more than a million copies in the '80s, it barely reaches 30,000 today. For a century, Train Running was very important and has become, in the age of online applications, almost useless.

• The first Train Run in Romania was before Greater Romania existed.
• There was, at the beginning of the last century, a direct train from Romania, the “Nord Express”, which reached Ostend, in Belgium, on the North Sea.

Train travel first appeared 120 years ago and has changed enormously since then. What new things were found in it a century ago? What was the time of “high speed” trains like? What was in the March of 1929?

Printed in 1906, before the Great Union

The Train Journey is much more than a book with tables, kilometers, times, stations and train numbers. Over the years, it has had advertisements for car workshops and stamps, morbid texts about railway accidents, but also information about how you could get by train to distant cities like Lisbon, London, Madrid or Stockholm.

In the 80s you saw in Mersul Trenurilor that there were direct trains to France, Germany or Switzerland, but very few Romanians could get a passport. On the other hand, it was a golden age for railways, with trains running on dozens of sections that had closed in the last 35 years.

In a response to HotNews.ro, CFR SA says that the history of publishing “Mersului Trenurilor” begins in the first decades of operation of the railway network.

“According to the CFR SA archive, the first official printed edition dates back to 1906. Before this time, timetables appeared in newspapers and railway brochures since the 1880s, when the press published the first official train tables.

Some examples provided by the public railway company

In the absence of digital platforms, the editions before the year 2000 were printed in very large volumes, says CFR SA. A relevant example comes from the year 1983, when “Running Trains” was produced in approximately one million copies in large format and 80,000 copies in “pocket” format.

In the 90s, the circulations remained high, to cover the needs of stations, agencies and railway staff, the public railway company also says.

However, the recent situation differs significantly. In 2024, CFR SA printed “Mersul Trenurilor” in a circulation of 34,462 copies, the company says.

For the first time, at the end of 2025, Mersul was no longer available at CFR Călători ticket offices, but at those of the private company TFC. The book costs 29 lei and has 310 pages. The new Mers entered into force on December 14.

“For the 2025-2026 edition, the publication was printed in a total circulation of 27,554 copies, intended both for internal use and for sale to interested operators. The national railway passenger transport operator has meanwhile given up the purchase of the 4,032 copies originally requested, and until this date only the operator Transferoviar Călători requested and concluded a contract with CFR SA for the sale of the brochure at own ticket offices”, CFR SA also states.

When Bucharest – Constanța took 8 and a half hours

In the oldest March of trains, the 1906 edition, there were also many freight trains, and it took four hours from Bucharest to Predeal (which was then a border station with Hungary).

Maximum speeds in the Kingdom of Romania were 70 km/h, and express trains ran at an average of 45-50 km/h on important lines. The road from Bucharest to Constanța takes 8 and a half hours.

In 1914, the fastest trains were called “high-speed trains” and there were also “pleasure trains”, these being seasonal trains, intended mainly for excursions, on routes such as Bucharest – Predeal and Bucharest – Constanța. In that year there were dozens of pages in Mers with the schedule of freight trains, but also with mixed trains, i.e. trains made up of both passenger and freight wagons (slower trains than regular passenger trains).

There is a direct train to the North Sea

In the 30s of the last century, Mersul Trenurilor was full of advertisements, and in it were displayed international long-distance trains connecting Romania with Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Greece or the USSR.

There was a direct “Nord Express” train that went to Ostend in Belgium on the North Sea.

In the 1929 “The Walk” the front cover advertised a factory of “boot cream and wax, parquet and furniture and rubberized leather grease”. Inside there were many advertisements for car workshops in the Sibiu area, but there was also advertising paid for by companies that produced stamps.

The March of 1934 also included small texts (so-called telegrams) about what happens when you don't respect the rules near the railway lines. Here is an example, with the spelling from 91 years ago:

“The railway line is not a playground!

Telegram from Craiova, no. 181 of 3.5.1933.

Today 3.5.1933 at 19.30, several children playing in the vag. of the Kludsky circus stored on line 2 Ișalnița, loosened the brakes and the 35 gauge convoy. he sped off smashing the gates of the Tobacco Authority and hit 2 vag. who were unrestrained when loaded with tobacco near the warehouse; these vague picking up speed they went over the parapet burying themselves vaguely. Gm 1 261 520 to the longrin and to the vag. Gmc 277 009 with its front wall crumbling. Vague. they were under the supervision of the guard Geanta Lazar who knows the children; the damages amount to approximately 10,000 lei. The T. Severin workshop is asked to send a team with cranes to lift them. Minutes with ongoing investigations follow.

The head of the station, Brătianu”.

Also in the 30s, the railway book also contained data about the timetable of some ships, planes and some buses.

In 1939, Romanian trains sometimes had average speeds of 60-70 km/h and on long distances, and the fastest trains from us were the Malaxa locomotives which had a maximum speed of 110 km/h but also an average speed of over 80 km/h on several sections with lines in very good condition.

Back then, cities such as Chernivtsi and Chisinau were in the Kingdom of Romania, so the tables in Mers were much different than they are now.

The Running of Trains in Communism and after the Revolution

In “Mersul” from 1960, Brașov was called Oraşul Stalin, Eforie Sud was called Vasile Roaita (chefer worker shot in the great strike of 1933), and the Sinaia Sud bus stop was called IC Frimu (socialist militant). On each journey there were advertisements for the dining car promising two things: “a tasty meal and choice drinks”.

In the 80s, Mersul had more trains than today, because the 40 traffic sections that would disappear after 1990 had not been closed. In 1989, direct trains to Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Athens, Kiev and Moscow were also on the books.

How much was the book then? In 1979 it was 5 lei, and in 1988 it could be bought for 11 lei.

By the 90's there were several pages in “Mers” about distant international routes, so if you wanted, you could see “up to the minute” which trains to take to Lisbon, Madrid, Nice, Stockholm or Brussels (even if there were no direct trains).

After 1995, the journey began to “thin out”, traffic sections kept disappearing and fewer and fewer international trains remained. Travel times increased on several highways after 2000, and from 2005 private operators also appeared in Mersul Trenurilor (the first was Regiotrans, on Brașov – Zărnești.

CFR SA says that “the reduction in demand for the print edition is due to the predominant use of online information platforms, which has limited distribution to the general public.”

Decrease in the number of international trains

CFR Călători has had a mobile application for four years, and online tickets for the state operator and private ones can be bought online for more than a decade, so there is almost no need for the printed book with timetables and distances.

Moreover, in recent years, trains have been canceled at various times, as happened in the spring of 2025, when CFR Călători canceled more than 250 trains. The book becomes irrelevant when so many trains disappear during the year.

International trains have never been less: to Vienna, Budapest, Ruse, Vidin and Chisinau, and during the summer to Sofia, Varna and Istanbul. The train to Kyiv is not passed in the 2025-26 edition.