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EU agrees to part-fund Bucharest’s €1.4bn metro line

The European Commission has agreed in principle to provide funding to the Bucharest Metro’s sixth subway line, which will connect the Gara de Nord train station with the Henri Coanda International Airport (pictured).

The line will be 14km long, with 12 stations.

The Japanese government has already agreed to provide €356m of the project’s estimated €1.4bn cost through its International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a deal signed in 2010; the remainder will be met by the commission and the Romanian government.

Romania’s Transport Ministry announced on Thursday that it had agreed a maximum amount for the funding, but did not say what it was. The final sum will depend on negotiations among Romania, the EU and JICA.

The commission has already provided €252m from its Cohesion Fund for a 7km extension of line five. It also provided €72m for a 2km extension of the fourth line.

The Metro is also planning to build a seventh line, running around the east of the city, with 30 stations over 25km. An eighth line, which not yet been mapped out, will run around the south of the city.

The Bucharest Metro opened in 1979 and, along with the regional transit system, covers the entire metropolitan region. The metro carries an average of 500,000 passengers each weekday. The 71km system includes four lines and 53 stops.

Image: Henri Coanda International Airport will be one terminus of the new line (Cristian Bortes/Creative Commons)

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