Travel made simple: Changes to Hungarian rail services from 1 July

The Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) is implementing several changes to make the complex fare system and the overall travel easier for passengers. In addition to a number of other changes, the system of InterCity supplementary and seat tickets will be simplified. As of 1 July, passengers on InterCity trains and on non-IC trains that require a seat will be able to benefit from the advantages of the country season ticket introduced in May.

No more supplementary tickets

As of 1 July, the InterCity and high-speed train supplementary tickets will be discontinued on MÁV-START and GYSEV services. They will be replaced by new, uniformly priced seat tickets (helyjegy) in long-distance rail transport, MÁV announced.

Another change is that country season tickets will also be available for second-class travel on IC or other trains requring a seat ticket. The pricing of Smart tickets will also be adapted to the new charging system.

Overall, the changes from Saturday mean that the new county and country season tickets offer more passengers a cheap and simple solution for their daily commute than ever before.

What prices to expect?

Under the new fare system, which will come into force from 1 July, the existing IC supplementary tickets will be abolished. They will be replaced by uniformly priced seat tickets, which will also be available to IC train passengers with a country season ticket.

• The price of an IC researved seat ticket is HUF 650 (EUR 1.75) if purchased in advance (i.e. the day before the train departure date) and HUF 990 (EUR 2.66) if purchased on the day of travel.
• The price of premium (1+) class tickets will also change, with a uniform price of HUF 1990 (EUR 5.36).
• On trains and parts of trains which are not IC-quality wagons, but which require a seat ticket, the price of the ticket will be HUF 300 (EUR 0.81).

Important: The country season ticket is still not valid for everything

Holders of a country season ticket can travel in second class on IC or other trains which require a seat ticket, provided they have the appropriate seat ticket.

However, the county season ticket will still not be valid on trains and sections requiring a seat ticket. What is more, in first and premium (1+) class, neither of the two new fare products (the county and the country season ticket) will be valid for travel, even if additional tickets are purchased.

Smart tickets undergo changes as well

The discounted ticket type, introduced in 2021 and available exclusively on the MÁV app and the new Elvira (the ticket purchase site of MÁV), has been available on all domestic InterCity trains since March this year.

The most important change is that from 1 July, the Smart ticket will only be available in advance, not on the day of travel.

All the settlements that have been accessible with Smart ticket will continue to be accessible, MÁV informs.

The redeemability of the Smart ticket has also changed: it can be redeemed no later than 12 hours before the start of its validity period.

Due to the change in seat ticket prices, the price of Smart tickets will also change, with only one fare level instead of two. Prices will vary, but in most cases will not increase above the previous higher fare levels.