Sign of friendship? Subotica train station in Serbia won’t open until Hungarian signage is installed
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated that the Subotica train station would not open until all signs were displayed in Hungarian, in addition to Serbian and English. He made this remark after arriving in the northern Vojvodina city on a test train running on the newly renovated Serbian section of the Budapest–Belgrade railway.
Serbian part of the railway to be opened a year before deadline
Vučić mentioned that despite travelling on a test vehicle with his wife, the journey was pleasant. He emphasised that once regular train services begin, the travel experience between Subotica and Belgrade will be even better. As he toured the station, the president remarked that no one would have dreamed Serbia could complete this project ahead of Hungary. The Serbian side is preparing to open the renovated railway a year before the deadline, iho.hu reports.
The station will not open without Hungarian signage
Although the initial plan was to open the Subotica train station to passengers within five or six days, this will now be delayed. The station currently only has signs in Serbian and English, but none in Hungarian, which Vučić called unacceptable.
He emphasised that as long as he is president, everything in Subotica must also be written in Hungarian,
citing his late friend István Pásztor as a key figure who helped bridge the Serbian and Hungarian peoples. Until this issue is resolved, the station will remain closed.
Train services along the Belgrade–Novi Sad–Subotica section are expected to resume on 24 November, with trains covering the 184-kilometre route in 70 minutes on tracks designed for speeds of up to 200 kilometres per hour. No official information has been provided on the progress of the Hungarian section of the Budapest–Belgrade railway.
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Vucic would actually withhold service to all travellers until signs are installed in Hungarian? Sure, install the signs but does this make sense? This is senseless political posturing by dictators at the expense of average people who need to get somewhere. I’m quite sure that any Hungarian travellers would rather have the station available now that have wait for the signs in Hungarian to be installed. It shows you how distorted the thinking of dictators can become. It’s more a gesture of stupidity than friendship.
It is interesting considering how many signs on Budapest transport stations are only in Hungarian, with the thousands and thousands of non Hungarians who pass through. I guess, like his hero Trump said, people just don’t know how to use phone apps like Google translate.