Romania's Railways under Transition: Reorganisation Rehabilitation and Regional Development
The paper attempts a review of the Romanian Railwaysduring transition. The first half of the paper considers the fall intraffic and the resulting financial problems which have made itdifficult to maintain the system and continue with any development.The organisation has been restructured so that separatefreight and passenger companies can now concentrate on specificbusiness and compete on the market while the infrastructurecompany is catching up on the maintenance backlog andis proceeding slowly with further electrification. The secondsection concentrates on the European project for high-speedtransport corridors and especially the interest of Romania'srailways in Corridors Four and Nine. Although there have beendelays over several years in starting the complex work of upgrading,contracts for the first phase of Corridor Four (Bucharest-Ctimpina) have now been signed, a new passenger coachrunning 200 km/his in service and locomotive upgrades are underway.The significance of all this for regional developmentlies in the fact that remarkably little of the 1989 network hasbeen closed and the system has remained basically intact tocope with the upswing in the economy that has taken placefrom 2000 onwards. The high-speed corridors, which include anumber of variants, comprise suffteient axes to afford directlinks with the economic macro regions while additional projectsare on hand to improve cohesion on the eastern frontier wherethe most serious development challenges exist.
Railway Network of Romania’s Central Development Region: Current Situation and Evaluation of Development Plans Based on Graph Theory Model
The present study focuses on the Central Development Region in Romania and attempts to highlight the deficiencies of the regional railway network, as well as to scientifically analyse the impact of new lines designed in the region. The current regional rail network is greatly determined by the historical development process of the railway, and therefore, in the first section, the most notable causes, milestones, and historical factors have been summarized. The goal of this paper has been to evaluate the current situation of the Central Region’s rail network and investigate the potential processes entailed by the line designed between Tirgu Mures and Sighisoara. For this, at first, some quantitative and qualitative analyses as well, including traffic and travel speed measurements have been carried out. Finally, using the analysis capabilities offered by the application of graph theory, we had the opportunity to perform a simulation with the planned rail line. Our conclusion is that the improvement of the Tirgu Mures rail accessibility toward Brasov could be considered as a real option, especially, as in the near feature, the motorway connection between these two important Transylvanian cities will be built, which will represent a huge challenge for the rail transport on this axis.
The Politics of Truth: Power in Nietzsche’s Epistemology
This article concerns first a curiosity found in Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Antichrist. In the midst of a heated attack on Christianity, Nietzsche detours into a discussion of epistemology. I argue that this turn indicates the importance of epistemology, and illustrates its political and moral character. The weak, who cannot tolerate uncertainty and shades of gray, seek to impose an epistemology of clarity and certainty. At the same time, the strong, who revel in ambiguity, seek to enjoy the richness and subtlety of a non-dichotomous view of the world. This is a political struggle because the weak cannot allow the strong’s epistemology to exist, let alone prevail. It is not surprising, then, that Nietzsche talks about epistemology in the midst of attacking Christianity: its view of truth is essential to its mission of taming the nobles. Here, I consider Nietzsche as a political thinker in a different light. Political battles are fought far beyond the halls of government. Nietzsche is a political thinker; one, however, who looks at politics in an uncommon way.