BREAKING: Budapest’s Keleti railway station finally reopens!
After the reopening of Keleti railway station was hindered by unforeseen problems early Sunday morning, MÁV CEO Zsolt Hegyi announced the good news just before 1:30 PM on social media: the station has successfully reopened and traffic can now resume.
“As you may recall, the restart of operations was delayed because, during the process of re-energising the station, certain switches needed to be adjusted,” wrote the CEO in his Facebook post. “We had prepared for such a scenario, so the (MÁV’s) National Emergency Centre immediately introduced the temporary traffic plan that best fit the situation,” he explained.
Keleti reopens after a month of renovations
“The switches have now been adjusted: the station is once again receiving and dispatching trains. In fact, the first train arrived at Keleti just a few minutes ago, and at 12:15 the first departing service – a Z60 headed for Szolnok – left the station,” Hegyi continued.
He added that traffic will be gradually restored at the station. During the afternoon, trains serving Eger, Gyöngyös, and suburban lines will return first, followed by long-distance services. From tomorrow morning, the station is expected to be running at full capacity once again.
“While traffic is being reintroduced in stages, supplementary and replacement buses will continue operating to serve the affected lines,” he reassured readers.
The latest, updated traffic information is available on the MÁVINFORM website.
- Earlier report: Chaos at Budapest’s Keleti railway station – Despite promises, traffic fails to resume
A small delay
As we reported, traffic was unable to resume at Keleti railway station on Sunday morning, even though MÁV had previously announced that one of the country’s busiest railway junctions would reopen on September 21 after four weeks of renovation. In the early hours of the morning, an unexpected technical fault prevented the station from opening, causing serious disruption.
On Saturday night, MÁV announced in a statement that one of the largest railway renovations in recent times had been completed. Passengers were promised that normal service would resume on Sunday at the historic main building and platforms. Although MÁV CEO Zsolt Hegyi reported in a video after 6 AM on Sunday that the station would remain closed, this lasted only a few hours, as Keleti reopened shortly after noon.
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