BUCHAREST ↓ CHIȘINĂU
I Took a 14-Hour Soviet Sleeper Train From Romania to Moldova
A 45-minute flight would have been easier. I chose the 14-hour overnight train instead. The one where they lift the entire train off its wheels at the border.
Romania → Moldova
·
August 2026
·
9
min read
THE ROUTE
Want to ride it yourself?
ROUTE
București Nord → Chișinău
TRAIN
Prietenia / Friendship
DURATION
14 ~ 16 hours
SLEEPER OPTIONS
1-bed / 2-bed / 4-bed
PRICE
~ 30 to 70 USD
BOOKING
CFR Călători
A flight from Bucharest to Chișinău takes less than an hour.
So naturally, I chose the 14-hour overnight train instead.
The Prietenia, or “Friendship” train, runs overnight from Bucharest, Romania to Chișinău, Moldova. It’s an old Soviet-era sleeper train that feels like it belongs to a completely different period of European travel.
Old sleeping compartments. Windows you can slightly open. Worn interiors. No attempt to make any of it feel particularly modern.
But the real reason I wanted to ride it happens in the middle of the night.
At the Moldova border, they literally lift the train off its wheels while you’re still inside.
More on that in a second.
First: How Do You Actually Book This Train?
If you found this page from my video and just want to ride it yourself, here’s the important part.
Route: București Nord → Chișinău
Train: Prietenia / Friendship (401)
Departure: București Nord
Arrival: Chișinău
Journey: Roughly 14 hours overnight
Cabins: 2-bed and 4-bed sleepers
You can buy international tickets directly through CFR Călători, Romania’s national railway operator.
I’d recommend checking the current timetable before planning your trip, since train times and fares can change.
Now for what riding it is actually like.
Starting in Bucharest
Before this trip, I knew almost nothing about Bucharest.
I ended up spending a few days there and was genuinely surprised by how much I liked it.
Bucharest has sometimes been called the “Paris of the East,” and once you start walking around the older parts of the city, you can see where the comparison comes from. Huge boulevards, European architecture, cafés everywhere, great food, and a city that felt much more lively than I expected.
A drone shot of Bucharest
I spent a few days exploring, eating, and somehow ended up driving tiny little speed demons around the city.
Mom and daughter playing ping pong in the streets
But eventually it was time for the real reason I had come.
I grabbed my bags and headed for București Nord.
București Nord · 44.446° N / 26.074° E
The Station Already Felt Like a Time Capsule
Walking into the station was probably the first moment where the trip started to feel real.
There were these huge departure boards hanging above the concourse, aging platforms and trains that looked like they had been running these routes for decades.
The departure board at București Nord.
It wasn’t polished.
And that’s exactly what I liked about it.
I bought some food and water before boarding — something I would definitely recommend doing — and waited on the platform for the train to arrive.
Waiting on the platform before boarding.
Eventually, there it was.
The Prietenia.
And seeing it in person was honestly a little eerie.
The Prietenia pulling in.
Stepping Onto the Soviet Sleeper Train
I boarded pretty much immediately because the last thing I wanted was to somehow miss the train after coming all this way.
The conductor checked my ticket, showed me where my compartment was, and the whole process ended up being surprisingly straightforward.
Walking up to my room in the train
Then I opened the door to my room.
It looked exactly how I hoped it would.
Old patterned upholstery. Heavy curtains. Wood paneling. Small reading lights. Metal fixtures.
My compartment with dinner I bought before boarding the train
Almost nothing about it felt modern.
It was like somebody had frozen a train in another era and just kept it running.
The hallway running the length of the carriage.
And then we started moving.
This Was My Favorite Part of the Journey
The first few hours were completely different from what I expected.
I opened the window and just sat there watching Romania pass by.
Small villages.
Fields.
Old stations.
The sun slowly dropping toward the horizon.
Somewhere in rural Romania, right before sunset.
There was warm summer air blowing through the compartment while the train rattled along the tracks, and for a while I forgot that this was supposed to be some crazy Soviet train experience.
It was just… peaceful.
Not luxurious, but exactly what you need.
I also started meeting some of the other people onboard.
That changed the atmosphere completely.
What had initially felt a little eerie started feeling strangely comfortable.
Eventually, everyone began settling into their compartments for the night.
And I tried to get some sleep.
Because sometime around 4AM, everything changes.
02:00–04:00 · Somewhere between Romania and Moldova
The train, stopped, somewhere near the border.
Why They Lift the Entire Train in the Middle of the Night
This is the reason I wanted to take this train.
Romania and Moldova don’t use the same railway gauge.
Romania uses the 1,435 mm standard gauge used across much of Europe.
Moldova inherited the wider railway gauge used across the former Soviet Union.
Which creates a fairly obvious problem.
The same wheels can’t simply continue onto the Moldovan tracks.
So instead of making everyone get off and switch trains, they do something much more interesting.
At Ungheni, near the Moldova–Romania border, the train is brought into a special facility.
And then they lift it.
With everyone still inside.
The carriages are raised off the ground using enormous mechanical jacks. The European-gauge bogies underneath the train are removed and wider bogies are rolled underneath to replace them.
Then the entire carriage is lowered back down.
You’re sitting inside the train while all of this is happening.
In the middle of the night.
The moment the carriage leaves the ground.
Wait — what’s a bogie?
The bogie is essentially the wheel assembly underneath a railway carriage. At the border, the carriage is lifted, one set is rolled away, and another is installed underneath.
Waking Up to Border Control
Around the same part of the journey, border officials came through the train for passport control.
It was one of those moments where you wake up confused, remember you’re somewhere near the Romanian-Moldovan border, hand your passport to someone and then try to figure out what’s happening outside your window.
Border formalities happen right in the compartment.
There were loud metallic noises underneath us.
The carriage moved.
Stopped.
Moved again.
At some point we were physically sitting above the ground without our normal wheels underneath us.
Not exactly my usual 4AM routine.
Somewhere around Ungheni, well past midnight.
The whole stop takes a while because you’re dealing with both the border procedures and the gauge change.
Eventually, though, the train gets put back together.
You hear another series of jolts.
Then silence.
And before long, you’re moving again.
Except now you’re rolling through Moldova.
Ungheni station, where the gauge change happens.
Romania ↓ Moldova
Waking Up in Moldova
This might have been the most satisfying part of taking the train instead of flying.
If I had flown, Romania and Moldova would have basically been two airports separated by 45 minutes in the air.
Instead, I watched one country slowly turn into another.
I went to sleep in Romania.
Got lifted off the tracks in the middle of the night.
And woke up looking out at the Moldovan countryside.
Moldova, just after sunrise.
Eventually the buildings became denser and we slowly rolled into Chișinău.
Fourteen-ish hours after leaving Bucharest, I stepped onto the platform.
And somehow, I wasn’t really ready for the journey to end.
Arriving in Chișinău.
Is the Bucharest to Chișinău Sleeper Train Worth It?
If your only goal is getting from Bucharest to Chișinău as quickly and efficiently as possible? Probably not.
There are faster ways to make this journey.
But that’s also completely missing the point.
I talked to locals who told me that they wouldn’t be surprised if trains like this eventually disappeared. For most people actually traveling between Romania and Moldova, nostalgia isn’t particularly useful. They just want to get where they’re going.
And that’s what made taking it feel special.
Travel has become incredibly optimized.
We fly over countries.
We skip the boring parts.
We search for the fastest connection and complain when something takes an hour longer than expected.
This train is basically the opposite.
It’s slow.
It’s old.
It’s imperfect.
And it turned what could have been a 45-minute flight into one of my favorite travel experiences of the year.
Sometimes the side quest ends up being the part you remember.
Would I Do It Again?
Absolutely.
Not because it was comfortable.
Not because it was convenient.
And definitely not because it was the fastest way to Moldova.
I’d do it again because it felt like actual travel.
There’s something about waking up in a moving train, looking outside and realizing you’re in a country you’ve never seen before that flying just can’t recreate.
And knowing that a few hours earlier the entire carriage you were sleeping in had been lifted into the air and given a new set of wheels?
That helps too.
THE LOOK
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