ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that although the passengers in socialist Romania of 1950s and 1960s had to face various political and economic limitations, the experience of railway travel changed their perception of time and space, and played a major factor in their increasing geographical and ultimately their social mobility. It investigates the role of passenger transportation within railway system, the passenger's use of railway lines, the conditions provided by various types of trains, and last but not least cultural and social impact of railways on passengers. The accounts presented are relevant not only in showing the unseen social realities of socialist Romania during the decades between 1950s and 1970s, but they also tell about the way people who lived under socialism relate to their own past. The passenger's perspective on railway transportation in Communist Romania of the 1950s and 1960s is brought to light with the help of oral history interviews conducted with people between the ages of 58 and 90.
