The Romanian Government, on October 2, signed a memorandum on the development of the M6 subway line, including extending it to Otopeni Airport.

The last segment of M6, connecting Tokyo station (Baneasa commercial centre) to Otopeni Airport, has constantly been a delicate project and recently, a European Investment Bank evaluation quoted by Hotnews.ro revealed it would hardly be financially profitable.

Former transport minister Catalin Drula wrote a negative opinion on the project before his reformist party (USR-PLUS) pulled out of the Government.

State secretary Ionel Scrioşteanu argued, on October 2, in favour of the project, mainly stressing that it is not competing with the train connection between the Airport and the central train station (that is functional already). The train link is rather dedicated to those who do not live in Bucharest, he argued.

“Regarding the train Gara de Nord - Otopeni, we consider that this investment, metro - train, is complementary because the train Bucharest - Otopeni can also target the 60% of the passengers of Otopeni Airport who are not from Bucharest. The service market that is served by Otopeni Airport is expanding far beyond Bucharest. The whole of northern Bulgaria, for example, comes and flies internationally from Otopeni Airport,” Scriosteanu said, according to Digi24.

The controversial segment of the M6 subway line is expected to cost EUR 666 mln (50% of which to be financed by the Japanese agency JICA), out of which the infrastructure alone would cost RON 1.32 bln (EUR 260 mln).

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Andrei Gabriel Stanescu/Dreamstime.com)