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.
The Romanian Railway Debate: A Theme in Political Geography
ft;.THOUGH railways in Britain have undoubtedly been important for military purposes to aid mobilization and provide access to naval bases, it could be argued that the system was conditioned essentially by the economic and social environment. But on the Continent where there were land frontiers to be defended and large distances involved in troop movements the strategic factor assumed greater importance. I Despite the increasing role of air transport for movement of military personnel and equipment the railways retain a fundamental strategic function which is appreciated by the Warsaw Pact member states in Eastern Europe. Moreover the recent expansion of road transport in this area has not dislodged the railways from first place in the movement of both goods and passengers (related to distance). So decision-making with regard to new construction, or modernization of existing capacity, is clearly of major political significance.> In much ofsouth-eastern Europe railway building did not get under way until the last quarter ofthe nineteenth century when individual nations were evolving relatively sophisticated policies ofstate intervention in the economy and comprehensive transport systems were needed.s These involved basic railway networks, connecting the main towns and providing international links where appropriatc. The issues then were fairly clear, as indeed they are today with the emphasis on the development of the principal international routes, underlined by the continuing programme of track doubling and/or electrification and the introduction ofcontainer services.rBut during the inter-war period there was considerable uncertainty. The possibilities for road and air transport were being appreciated, yet there was no consensusover the way these competitors should complement the railway services and conflicting claims for limited investment funds were difficult to resolve. These difficultieswere compounded by the substantial territorial gains made by some Eastern European countries after the First World War; the infrastructure had to be modified with new lines ofcommunication across former frontier zones.! All political frontier changes have a noticeable effect on the development of the railway pattern but while Professor Beaver has observed that 'one line already built may have been rendered almost useless by the interposition ofa frontier across its track',6 it is also true that the removal ofa frontier has important implications in demands for new construction. Furthermore, important territorial annexations could reveal sharp regional contrasts in the general level of socio-economic development, expressed in transport terms by significant variations in the density of the railway system. This might lead to pressures for new secondary
A Rapid Method for the Extraction of Radioiodide from Urine
THE extraction of radioiodide from urine is important in radioiodide therapy, since without it the large quantities of highly radioactive urine which accumulate must be stored until the activity decays sufficiently to allow disposal.