Entire train service in Eastern Hungary threatened with collapse

MÁV passengers can expect deteriorating track conditions and longer journey times in the future. The Hungarian Public Railways company (MÁV) has published an infographic showing that track conditions will deteriorate on a number of lines for the 2023/24 timetable year. This threatens the entire train service in Eastern Hungary with collapse.

According to MÁV-Start’s infographic, track conditions will deteriorate on several lines for the 2023/24 timetable year, iho.hu reports. A number of branch lines will be affected, but negative changes can also be expected on important main lines.

Where to expect increased journey times?

The biggest increase in journey times is expected on line 140 in Szeged. The journey between Budapest and the county seat of Csongrád-Csanád will take 13 minutes longer than at present. The situation is not much better on the Miskolc line. The journey time between Budapest and the Borsod county seat will increase by seven minutes.

Main line 100, which has been renovated in several phases over the past fifteen years, is starting to fall back to where it started. Between Budapest and Szolnok, the journey is three minutes longer. Between the capital and Nyíregyháza, it is five minutes longer. To avoid the latter, intercity trains would not stop at Hajdúszoboszló and Püspökladány.

MÁV is facing huge extra costs, maintenance is almost impossible

At present, maintaining the condition of the railway tracks is also a virtually impossible task for MÁV. The railway company is facing huge extra costs. First the COVID-19 pandemic and then the war in Ukraine caused a sharp rise in the price of traction energy. In 2020, a kilowatt-hour of electricity cost an average of HUF 30 (EUR 0.080). In August last year, the price was as high as HUF 400 (EUR 1.06), and the average monthly price was still around EUR 200 (EUR 0.53).

“A public cry for help” by MÁV

Dávid Vitézy, economist, posted the following on his Facebook page:

“I have been following the affairs of MÁV for a long time, but perhaps I have never seen anything like this: the railway company is issuing a public cry for help, explaining to the lay public in well-designed, easy-to-understand infographics that they are planning for a deterioration of track conditions on the main railway lines for the next timetable year that has not been seen for decades.”

Vitézy says, “this would also mean that not only would trains slow down, but the entire regular timetable in Eastern Hungary would collapse, including its connecting systems, so if this really happens, the drop in passenger numbers and increase in journey times in almost all of Eastern Hungary will be significantly greater than the effect of a 5-13 minute delay alone.”

He added: “It is particularly incomprehensible that railway lines that have been completely renovated with EU funds over the past two decades would also suffer from slowdowns, such as the Budapest – Debrecen main line.”