Here is what everybody waited for: a railway development program

The Construction and Transport Ministry will submit a ten-year railway development programme to the government, János Lázár, the minister of construction and transport, said in a radio programme on Thursday.

The aim is to upgrade the aging track network and the rolling stock step by step, focusing on important tasks, the minister said. This requires investments worth up to 6,000 billion forints (EUR 15.4bn), which could be covered from European Union funds or by borrowing on money markets, Lázár said.

Lázár noted that the number of passengers dropped significantly during the pandemic, but demand for public transport increased considerably in the past six months. In 2022, the government decided to concentrate resources in rail transport around the capital, and this requires workforce. In addition to ensuring accident-free traffic, the reallocation of human resources is partly the reason why rail traffic has been suspended on ten branch lines from August, he said.