Romania Europe's cross-roads pan-European corridors and TEN-T priority axes. Current conditions and perspectives

Transport networks in the Balkans have developed for centuries according to actual trade and travel requirements but also to political constrains. Both factors have significantly changed recently, but the links to provide basic accessibility to the region already exist, even if many of them are sub-standard and provide a poor level of service, largely as a result of accumulated under-investment and a lack of adequate maintenance. Intermodal transport is still rare in the Balkans and inter-modal facilities or equipment do not, for the moment, constitute an impediment to the development of long distance traffic through the region. Following the political and economic opening after 1989, Romania, an E.U. frontier state becomes an important international traffic component which raises issues that will need to be solved not only from a technical point of view but also in compliance with the European environmental policies