Cargo transport in Hungary in grave danger: authorities may close key Danube bridge because it threatens lives

The freeport on the Northern tip of Csepel Island is the beating heart of the Hungarian economy. Without it, one cannot imagine an operable automotive industry (either German or Chinese) in Hungary or even buying new Lego figures produced in Nyíregyháza. The freeport is connected by a skinny railway Danube bridge to the other parts of Hungary (and the world), but authorities may close it due to its life-threatening condition. The closure is not far in the future: it may happen in just months. This may bring Hungary’s ‘Suez crisis’.

Danube Bridge is key for Hungary’s industry

Válasz Online collected all the relevant information in the article and compared the Gubacsi railway bridge (there is another bridge centimetres South for pedestrians and cars) to the Suez Canal. If Hungary loses the Gubacsi Bridge, the results could be similar for our national economy to when a container ship ran aground in the canal in 2021.

Based on estimates, 30-40% of Hungary’s industry depends on the Gubacsi Danube Railway Bridge. That is because Hungary has only one container port, the so-called freeport at the northern edge of Csepel Island.

Source: Wikimedia Commons / 12akd

At least 20 cargo trains pass on the 145-meter-long bridge daily. That means cargo volume has increased four times in the last 12 years.

The Hungarian State Railways mentioned a three-month-long closure in January, but logistics companies were outraged. They said such a closure would bankrupt them. Furthermore, they envisaged a court trial since the Hungarian state’s contractual obligation is to allow cargo transport on the bridge at least until 2080.

Reconstruction starts in September

As a result, MÁV will start reconstruction work in September, but they will close the bridge for only 4 days after 10 days of transport. Based on the plans, they will finish by December. However, a MÁV official said that would only be temporary: it could prolong the bridge’s lifespan by 2 years.

Hungary cannot substitute the bridge. That would require 500 trucks each day.

Gubacsi road bridge. Photo: FB/Lénárd Borbély

Locals have been complaining for a long time because of the devastating state of the bridge, but decision-makers remained deaf or delayed the issue.

Artúr Kikina, MÁV’s deputy director responsible for railway line operation and development, introduced a 5 km/h speed and a 20 tonnes weight limit this June. Furthermore, MÁV checks out the bridge’s state every two months, prolonging its permit. The next one will take place in August.

Here is a video of the speed limit:

EU funds for a new bridge?

There were plans to build a new railway bridge 15 meters north of the old one inaugurated in 1928. However, MÁV does not have the money for the project. The state got all permits for the construction, so experts thought it would start at least in 2019.

The Gubacsi Bridge in an aerial photograph taken in 1944, before its bombing:

Gubacsi Danube Bridge in 1944. Photo: Fortepan

In 2022, János Lázár, Hungary’s new construction and transport minister, aborted more than 280 development projects, including the building of the new railway overpass, due to the lack of money.

At the beginning of 2024, a government decree appeared about constructing a new bridge for HUF 44 billion (EUR 110 million). 2/3rds of the money would have been EU money. Moreover, the decree would have pumped money into the project from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), which is still open for Hungary. Other funds like the RRF funds, the development funds, and even the Erasmus or the Horizon remained frozen.

Big plans last September – nothing happened:

However, the government did not take any steps to get money from the CEF for the bridge’s construction. The ministry only talked about the revamp of the old bridge in an official response to Válasz Online.

Read also:

• Container transport in Budapest may stop: How will this affect the Hungarian economy? – read another article about the devastated state of the Gubacsi Bridge HERE
• Have you ever heard of the Manhattan of Budapest, Csepel? – photos, videos and more in THIS article