Budapest rail tunnel project enters new stage

The Budapest Development Centre (BFK) and Főmterv have signed a contract to prepare an environmental impact study for a planned tunnel under the River Danube linking the city’s suburban railway lines, BFK head Dávid Vitézy said on Tuesday.

The 850 million forint (EUR 2.4m) study is part of the government’s Budapest Suburban Railway Strategy, and will be co-financed by the government and European Union, Vitézy said.

The impact study will review the environmental effects of a tunnel linking the Kelenföld railway station and Széll Kálmán Square in Buda, and the Nyugati railway station in Pest, as well as a reconstruction of the latter,

he said.

An environmental impact assessment procedure is required before any activity with significant effects on the environment is started or extended. The environmental impact assessment covers the section between the Kelenföld railway station and the Városligeti junction, including the tunnel and the connecting above-ground railway facilities. So it is not only the tunnel itself that is part of the work, but also the new two-level Nyugati station (for which a design tender is under way) and the development of the sections from the Vác and Cegléd lines.

The design will have to take into account, for example, new underground stations, stops, circulation spaces, ventilation systems, utilities, but also surface parks, car parks, public transport elements, operational facilities and safety installations.

Budapest cannot accommodate more trains during weekday peak periods due to overcrowding and lack of capacity at the main stations, although our modelling suggests that the demand for suburban services should be more than 90 trains per peak hour, instead of the current 42, he said.