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Surprising: Private super railway may connect Budapest Airport with city centre – UPDATED
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Even the Hungarian government acknowledges that the railway and public road connection between the Budapest Airport and the city centre must be expanded. However, probably only a few expected the idea of a private super railway line connecting the city with the airport to come.
No direct railway connection with Budapest Airport
Those who already visited Budapest by plane know you can travel to the city centre from the international airport (Ferenc Liszt International Airport) by car (taxi), the airport shuttle bus or train. However, the train connection is not direct.
Provided you would like to continue your journey by train, you need to get off the bus at Ferihegy train station. That station is near Budapest Airport Terminal 1, used nowadays only by cargo planes and private jets. HERE is our article about it.
A direct railway connection between the city centre and the airport was planned, but nothing happened. The Hungarian government is to buy back Budapest Airport from its foreign owners and plans to expand it near Terminal 2 with a new terminal.
Budapest Airport as an underground railway station?
The National Infrastructure Development Company (NIF) planned a high-speed railway line between Kőbánya-Kispest (Budapest’s 10th district, but not the city centre) and the airport. According to those plans, that line would have become part of the future high-speed network’s Eastern branch.
Based on the NIF’s idea, Intercity and fast trains would have commuted on the new line and stopped only at Budapest Airport at an underground station. Meanwhile, suburban passenger and cargo trains would have used the old line. As a result, traffic could have become easier and swifter between the airport and Budapest. However, nothing happened.
New plan: the Chinese would build a private super railway line
According to iho.hu, the Chinese would like to build a railway connection between Terminal 2 (and Terminal 3) and Budapest’s city centre. However, they would build a private super railway line, which would not be part of the Hungarian railway network system.
A railway link between a city’s airport and the downtown is welcome in every major city and of course Budapest would like to have it. To build one that is not using existing tracks and claim in any way that it will be “market based” is completely delusional. Someone is going to end up subsidizing it. There is no possible way that the revenues from passengers will come remotely close to covering the costs of construction over any length of time.
These Fidesz scammers are putting Hungarians more and more under communist Chinese control. In Africa.they know what communist Chinese “help” really means!
Failure to proceed with the line diversion and underground station for existing fast trains would be a historic mistake as the solution offers connectivity not only for Budapest but also the regions. A dedicated train that serves only Budapest and isn’t integrated into MAV is of limited passenger appeal, while also serving to erode the future business case for the construction of a spur line and MAV through station at the airport.
Upgrading the road is of much greater urgency in my opinion, not only because of strong passenger growth at Budapest airport, but also because the M4 motorway will shortly begin carrying far more traffic due to motorway improvements in Romania and Hungary. At present all that extra traffic will do battle with airport passengers on the single ‘gyorsforgalmi’ road, a relic of the 1940s, there’s no other route available without undertaking a lengthy detour.