Fantastic news for travellers: Vienna-Budapest train services boosted with more frequent connections

State-owned Hungarian railway company MÁV signed a cooperation agreement with Austrian peer ÖBB at the InnoTrans international trade fair in Berlin on Tuesday.

Cooperation for better train service

The agreement extends to international passenger transport, maintenance and cargo service, MÁV said in a statement.

It added that both sides will work to step up passenger train service between Budapest and Vienna.

The agreement, which covers improving the quality of international passenger transport, performing maintenance tasks, and improving the competitiveness of rail freight transport, was signed by Zsolt Hegyi, CEO of MÁV Plc. and László Mosóczi, CEO of MÁV-START Plc. on the Hungarian side, and Andreas Matthä, Chairman of the Board of ÖBB Holding AG on the Austrian side.

More frequent train services between Vienna and Budapest

Under the terms of the agreement, the two countries’ railway companies will work towards a two-hour journey time between Budapest and Vienna, and will try to adapt the timetable structure and the stopping patterns of international passenger trains accordingly.

Although a significant reduction in journey times will only be possible from 2028 after the renovation of the railway line between Hegyeshalom and Vienna, both parties are working to introduce timetable changes that will allow more passenger trains to run at shorter journey times each year without stopping at Hegyeshalom and Tatabánya.

Currently, two pairs of Railjet trains per day cross the Hungarian-Austrian border without stopping at Hegyeshalmom with MÁV-START drivers as part of a pilot project. To extend this, MÁV-START and ÖBB are jointly providing the drivers and the necessary train crews.

ÖBB will endeavour to ensure that Railjet trains from Budapest and beyond Vienna can run faster and with new rolling stock in the new timetable model. At the same time, to improve passenger satisfaction, MÁV and ÖBB will develop a quality assurance system that will allow for a fast and efficient exchange of information between the companies in the event of disruptions.

As we wrote earlier, MÁV trains to commute differently this autumn, Budapest Airport and Vienna lines affected.

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• Hungary secures controlling stake in regional railway operator GySEV, details HERE