Infrastructure Minister Vladimir Bolea sparked ironic reactions after comparing the comfort of the modernized train to Iasi with high-speed trains in Japan, BANI.MD reports.
Speaking on the show Puterea a patra on N4, Bolea said the travel experience would not be significantly different.
“The train currently running to Iasi is newly modernized. I have traveled in Tokyo — the comfort of the train going to Iași is not different from the one operating in Tokyo at 350 km per hour,” Bolea stated.
However, the statement contrasts sharply with reality. According to the TEN-T 2023–2025 report, Moldova’s railway infrastructure is in critical condition: the entire core network is classified as poor, and nearly 45% of the extended network is very degraded.
Currently, trains in Moldova operate at about 48% of the speed for which the infrastructure was designed, and maximum speeds do not exceed 80 km/h — far below the high-speed standards referenced by the minister. By comparison, Japan’s high-speed rail system, the Shinkansen, reaches speeds of up to 350 km/h on certain routes.
Moldova’s operational railway network totals 1,232 km of main lines, all non-electrified, single-track, and built to the 1,520 mm broad gauge, which is incompatible with the European standard gauge. The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is entirely absent, and the report notes no significant modernization progress in recent years.
Given these facts, the minister’s comparison drew skepticism from the public, highlighting the stark gap between Moldova’s 80 km/h maximum speeds and Japan’s 350 km/h high-speed lines — a distance, at least figuratively, greater than that between Chisinau and Tokyo.