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.
Achievements and contradictions of the Peruvian agrarian reform
Different paths of transition to capitalist agriculture, as well as different types of agrarian reform, can be distinguished. The Peruvian agrarian reform is analysed within this context and evaluated in terms of its contribution to rural development. The Peruvian case underlines the importance of understanding the rationality of the pre‐existent agrarian system for a successful restructuring of the agrarian economy and society. The contradictions which arose between the State's model and the peasants’ model of agrarian reform, as well as those between different types of peasants, are discussed. Peru's experience is also a reminder that a land reform is not a sufficient condition for rural development unless accompanied by proper price, marketing, credit and investment policies.