Posted at Craiova station, August 2026. One direct train a day crosses the Danube into Bulgaria, and the fares on the Romanian side are so low they barely register against a plane ticket. The catch is the border: the Romanian leg is sold at the Romanian fare, and the international ticket beyond it is a separate transaction at the station ticket office.
Train 1091 leaves Craiova 07:15 and reaches Vidin in Bulgaria at 10:28. Coming back, train 1090 leaves Vidin at 13:00 and is in Craiova at 16:15. That is a genuine day trip if you want one — a little over two and a half hours in Vidin — or a cheap way to start a longer run south.
The full fare Craiova to Golenti, the last Romanian station before the bridge, is 18.50 lei — about 3.50 EUR or 4 USD. Pupils and students travel that leg free, a 100% reduction on Romanian territory. Pensioners pay half: 9.25 lei, roughly 1.75 EUR or 2 USD. The poster is explicit that for the international ticket from Golenti to Vidin you have to go to the ticket desks at Craiova station — it is not sold with the Romanian leg.
Not from Craiova, but worth knowing it exists. Train 461 leaves Bucharest Nord at 10:46 and runs overnight via Varna 19:56 and Sofia 20:41 into Istanbul at 09:56 the next morning; train 460 comes back, leaving Istanbul 20:00, Sofia 07:00, Varna 09:30, into Bucharest Nord at 16:56. The poster gives the running period as roughly mid-June to mid-October 2026, so treat it as a summer service and check before planning around it.
Craiova station ticket office, or CFR Călători’s own site. The poster lists the station on 0731 990 347, 0251 411 620 and 0251 411 050. Fares and timings here are what was printed on the platform poster in August 2026 — international rail timetables change with the season, so confirm at the desk rather than turning up on the strength of this page.