The Municipality of Cluj-Napoca has signed financing contract no. 166/2026 with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the managing authority of the Transport Programme 2021-2027, to continue Component 1 of metro Line I. The project covers 17.8 km of line, of which 8.8 km must be completed by the end of 2029 with programme money; the contract runs until 31 December 2029 at the latest. Once fully built, the line will measure 21.03 km with 19 stations and a depot, linking Florești, the city’s main neighbourhoods, the centre and key business areas along a west-east axis.
The eligible value is about 1.86 billion lei, with up to 1.82 billion lei (98%) in non-reimbursable funding from the European Regional Development Fund and the national budget, while the city contributes 37.1 million lei from its own budget. A further 9.01 billion lei is listed as non-eligible. The project started under Romania’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), where it received about 1.43 billion lei, before being taken over by the Transport Programme.
The system is sized for about 164,400 passengers a day in 2030, rising to about 246,000 by 2060, reflecting growing demand from Florești and heavy traffic on the west-east corridor. For European cities, the case shows how a major rail project can move from recovery funding to regular EU regional funding to keep going. More context is available in our Cluj-Napoca profile and our piece on Cluj-Napoca’s mobility strategies.