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Current State, as of 2007

Since its closure in 2001, the line was effectively abandoned. In 6 years the station buildings have deteriorated and some even collapsed, with others becoming shelters for gipsy families. Numerous telephone poles have fallen and some portions of the track have been stolen.

In some places where the line runs close to the Hartibaciu River the trackbed has washed out. Most of the track is overgrown and in some places completely hidden under sand and weeds. However the infrastructure remains generally sound, and the bridges are in good condition still.

After the break-up of the Romanian railway company CFR, ownership of the SAR was split between two companies, SFT, the Railway Tourism Company, which now owns the railway's rolling stock and some of the buildings, and SAAF, the company which took over CFR's unused assets, which owns the track, infrastructure and most of the buildings.

Though the SFT reportedly had plans to reopen the railway for tourism purposes, SAAF was not able to repair the line sufficiently to permit operation. Indeed in 2006, SAAF expressed their wish to lift the tracks, to realise their scrap value, thus ending any plans to reopen this railway.

This caused the many people who cared about the railway to work together to try to save and even revive this important part of Transylvania's history. A combination of local people, local authorities and even international organisations like the Mihai Eminescu Trust have been making their feelings felt, and endeavouring to put pressure on the owners of the assets to behave responsibly.

Plans were advanced to declare the Sibiu-Agnita Railway a historical monument, thus saving it from being sold as scrap iron, and this process is nearly complete. Meanwhile we have requested the Romanian Ministry of Transportation to transfer the line to the local authorities (in the first instance to the County Council) which are in the best position to acquire the European funds needed to revive the railway, which will clearly be of benefit to this deprived region.

2008 update

Our efforts to save the railway were rewarded this spring, the whole railway, including buildings, bridges and any static equipment, having been listed as a historical monument.

However, later in the year, four diesels and two carriages were scrapped, although we went a number of times to Bucharest offering to buy them. From the hands of scrappers we managed to save four carriages, the only to have survived, although completely vandalised, by the time we got there. One of the flat wagons also misteriously vanished over night, reportedly being scrapped.

The struggle now goes on to save the few remaining rolling stock from scrapping, meaning one diesel and 3 steam locomotives, one flat, one covered and two heating wagons.