Plans ready and permission granted for the superfast railway line between Budapest Airport and downtown!

An MP asked about the plans for the railway in writing, and the secretary of state said in his answer that works on creating the new, fast railway line can start in 2021.

Péter Ungár (Hungarian Greens, LMP) asked the Minister of Innovation and Technology when the plans for the new airport railway line the government talked about before will be realised. Tamás Schanda, one of the minister’s secretaries, answered in the name of László Palkovics, reports hvg. He said that the plans are already finished, and they already have the necessary permissions.

He added that since building a new railway line is very expensive,

the government is planning to find a budget for it in the EU’s 2021-2027 financial aid programmes

allocated for the development of public transport. Mr Schanda highlighted that traffic at the Budapest airport has doubled since 2010, and the Liszt Ferenc International Airport welcomed more than 16 million passengers in 2019. Therefore, the ever-growing number of passengers demand a fast, comfortable, and environmentally friendly transport link between the airport and the downtown of the Hungarian capital.

• New railway line would reach Budapest Airport directly!
• New railway tunnel getting built at Budapest airport
• Success! Traffic grew twice at Budapest Airport compared to 2019 European average
• Great! Record number of passengers used Budapest Airport in 2019

As we wrote before HERE, two plans are competing against each other in the project. The Chinese CRRC, a state-owned company, would build a separate railway line between the airport and downtown. Based on their plan handed in in 2017, they would build it from Chinese financial resources, and they would operate it, too, for 30 years. The trains would circulate between the Eastern Railway Station and would only stop at Kőbánya-Kispest station. A one-way ticket for that train would cost almost 10 EUR.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian Railways (MÁV) had their own plan finished in 2016. Based on that, the railway line connecting the airport and downtown

would be integrated into the Hungarian railway network,

so it would not only offer a direct link to the airport for all travelling from Budapest, but it would also help passengers coming from the Eastern part of the country to reach the airport via a straight railway line. Furthermore, the railway line would be operated by the Hungarian Railways, and it would connect the Western Railway Station and Ferihegy.

Source: hvg.hu