Bucharest–Brașov

Most stations are built because a town needs one. At Sinaia, two of the three were built for one family. King Carol I spent his summers at Peleș Castle in the woods above the town, and in 1886 the railway gave him a station of his own beside the public one, for the royal household and its guests. Carol II added a second, finished in 1940 to designs by the architect Duiliu Marcu, with a depot for the royal train and a square for welcoming heads of state. It is still kept for state occasions and is not open to the public. On the platform of the public station, a plate marks where the prime minister Ion G. Duca was shot dead by members of the fascist Iron Guard on 30 December 1933, on his way back from an audience with the king.

The line is CFR Main Line 300, 166 km from București Nord to Brașov: forty minutes across the plain to Ploiești, then up the Prahova Valley into the Carpathians, past Sinaia and Bușteni under the walls of the Bucegi, over the pass at Predeal and down into Transylvania. When it opened in 1879, Predeal was a frontier station, with Austria-Hungary on the other side.

CFR Călători runs about twenty trains a day each way. The InterCitys run non-stop from Ploiești to Brașov in about two and a quarter hours; for Sinaia, Bușteni and Predeal, take an InterRegio, which calls at all of them in about two and a half.

The first hour is flat. From București Nord the line runs north across the Wallachian plain to Ploiești Vest, at km 59. The station was built after the First World War, when the line was already Romanian end to end, so that trains to Brașov no longer had to reverse in Ploiești. The InterCitys stop here and nowhere else before Brașov.

Up the Prahova

At Câmpina, km 92, the hills close in, and beyond Comarnic the line enters the gorge of the Prahova. The railway of 1879 went through two short tunnels near Posada; both were given up when the line was doubled in 1940, and the track now follows the river in the open, with the main road alongside. Sinaia comes at km 121, its station buildings set against the forest.

Under the Bucegi

North of Sinaia the valley opens and the Bucegi appear on the left, a wall of rock rising to 2,505 metres, straight from the edge of Bușteni at km 129. Azuga follows, then Predeal at km 140, Romania's highest town. The line opened in sections in 1879: Ploiești to Câmpina and Sinaia to Brașov on 10 June, the gorge between them only on 1 December, with carriages carrying passengers across the gap. Predeal was the frontier station between Romania and Austria-Hungary until 1918.

Down to Brașov

Over the watershed the line leaves the Prahova for the Timiș and falls through the forest to Brașov. The Hungarian railway had this side ready by 1878, including the two brick tunnels north of the pass, 937 and 104 metres long. The train runs into Brașov at km 166.

The trains

This was the first electrified main line in Romania. Between 1963 and 1965, French, East German, Czechoslovak and Swedish prototypes were tried against each other on the climb from Brașov to Predeal; the Swedish firm ASEA won, and from 1967 to 1991 the Electroputere works at Craiova built more than a thousand of its six-axle electrics under licence, as CFR's Class 40 (120 km/h) and Class 41 (160 km/h). Electric trains reached Predeal from Brașov in 1965 and Bucharest in 1969. Many of the class have since been rebuilt by Softronic as Class 47, and they still head CFR Călători's trains here. The track was rebuilt for 150 km/h, from Bucharest to Câmpina by 2004 and on to Predeal in 2011.

Since August 2026 a private operator, Astra Trans Carpatic, has also run four trains a day each way between Bucharest and Brașov, with an electric unit built in China by CRRC.

CFR Călători runs about twenty trains a day in each direction, every day of the week, from about 05:40 to 21:20 out of București Nord. There are three kinds: the InterCity (IC), which stops only at Ploiești Vest; the InterRegio (IR), which calls at the resorts in the valley; and the Regio (R), which stops everywhere. Every ticket carries a seat reservation.

București Nord to Brașov

Brașov to București Nord

Many of these trains run on beyond the two ends, to Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Târgu Mureș or Constanța, so the board at București Nord will show the final destination rather than Brașov.

Astra Trans Carpatic

The private operator's four InterRegio trains each way (IR 11531–11538) call at Ploiești Vest, Câmpina, Sinaia, Bușteni, Azuga and Predeal. From București Nord they leave at 06:35, 07:44, 14:20 and 15:40, reaching Brașov in under two and a half hours; from Brașov at 10:44, 11:46, 17:10 and 18:30. Astra sells its own tickets.

Departures for Thursday 5 November 2026, read on 20 October 2026 from CFR Călători's booking site (opens in a new tab) and Astra Trans Carpatic's timetable (opens in a new tab). The timetable year changes in mid-December.

Fares depend on the kind of train. For a journey on 5 November 2026, CFR Călători's booking site quoted an adult 37.80 lei on the Regio, 68.15 lei second class on an InterRegio and 77.15 lei on an InterCity, with first class at 97.85 and 111.80 lei. Every ticket comes with a seat reservation, issued with it at no extra charge, and the site warns that its prices can include advance-purchase discounts.

Buy online at CFR Călători's booking site, in the app or at the station. Astra Trans Carpatic sells its own tickets online and from machines in the halls at București Nord and Brașov. Fares in Romanian lei, as of October 2026.

An Interrail Romania Pass or a Global Pass covers CFR Călători's trains on this line. Interrail's table of railway companies lists the Regio with no reservation needed, and the InterRegio and InterCity with a compulsory reservation, which the pass does not include. Astra Trans Carpatic is excluded, so its trains need their own ticket.

For this journey alone, a pass is not worth buying. The cheapest Romania Pass, three travel days in a month, costs €105 in second class for an adult and €79 for a traveller aged 12 to 27, against 68.15 lei for an InterRegio ticket. It pays only on a longer trip through Romania.

Checked October 2026 against interrail.com (opens in a new tab).

With trains every hour or so, Sinaia, Bușteni and Brașov are easy places to break the journey, and Bran is 25 km beyond Brașov.

Sinaia is the place to stop overnight on the way: Peleș and the monastery are both in the town, and the InterRegios carry on to Brașov in about an hour. București Nord is also where the seasonal through train to Sofia starts — see Sofia to Bucharest.

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