I have researched and it seems that the distance is about 190 miles or so, but when I try to determine how long the train ride is from Bucharest to Sofia, several sites say it is 12 hours? Seems like a long ride for 190 miles. Anybody here taken a train ride from Bucharest to Sofia and can tell me how long the ride is? Thanks a lot.

By road the distance is 400km (about 250 miles). By train it would be longer as the route is not very direct. And yes, it does take 11 or 12 hours, including about 2 hours at the border. Check exact times at www.bahn.de (enter "Bucuresti" for Bucharest).

Here is Die Bahnīs website in English http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
Jesper

there are two international trains. All of them are going via border point of Russe. Most time is lost due the fact, the border bridge across the Danube needs much overhaul. From Russe on the travel is pretty straightforward. The Russe-Sofia distance over Bulgarian territory is 405 km. The entire distance is as follows:

Bucuresti-Russe(Gr) = 121 km
Russe(Gr) - Russe = 11 km
Russe - Sofia = 405 km

Remark: the "Gr" means "Grenze", "Granica" (border point), not Greece!

Total: 537 km. The schedule within Bulgaria is certainly not fast but not that slow either: it takes 6.5 hours to cover these 405 km, so the train goes with ca. 60 km/h in average including stops.

An other question, there is some trackwork and detours going on in Romania, thus the slower average speed.