Main goods transport artery, Budapest’s Gubacsi railway bridge, may collapse into the Danube – PHOTOS
The Gubacsi railway bridge connects Budapest’s 20th and 21st districts, but its importance is much higher than just connecting two areas of the Hungarian capital. Hungary’s only container port is in the Northern parts of Budapest’s 21st district, Csepel. Without the railway bridge, serious disruptions could evolve in goods transport via Hungary, having a devastating effect even in the Central European or German economies.
5 km/h is the permitted speed on the Gubacsi railway bridge
Therefore, it is bad news that Hungarian authorities introduced a 5km/h speed limit on the Gubacsi railway bridge due to its dangerous state. Some media outlets even said the overpass may collapse into the Soroksár arm of the River Danube.
Here are some photos of the state of the bridge:
According to Indóház Online, authorities installed speed-measuring cameras and displays on either side of the bridge. However, the cameras do not function appropriately. From the 20th district, they measure even the speed of the cars, so they are always red. Meanwhile, from the 21st district, they measure the speed of the pedestrians because of which they “are always smiling” green.
As we wrote in THIS article, there were multiple plans to build a new overpass north of the existing one. The brand-new, 145-metre-long bridge could solve the problems of the slow pace that goods transport companies struggle with, but the Hungarian government “could not find” the money for it in the last 2-3 years. The European Union could finance such projects, but since the Orbán cabinet could not agree with the European Commission, those funds remained frozen.
No money for the new Gubacsi railway bridge
In 2023, the Hungarian government planned to build the new railway bridge with Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funds. The Orbán cabinet said the new connection would reduce the shipping time of military equipment to the Freeport of Csepel and increase Hungary’s military mobility. In 2024, the government allocated HUF 44 billion (EUR 105 million) from EU funds for the construction, but nothing happened.
Based on estimates, 30-40% of Hungary’s industry depends on the Gubacsi Danube Railway Bridge since Hungary has only one container port, the so-called freeport at the northern edge of Csepel Island. If authorities had to end traffic on the overpass, it would cause serious disruptions in goods transport and would have a devastating effect even in the Central European or the struggling German economies.
Read also:
Close the bridge to all traffic and build Fidesz cabinet offices on top of the bridge.
they had money for football stadiums,,,the rest was “lost” via corruption…now nothing is left for this bridge…but, the Viktator said it’s the EU, Soros, the war,….never my fault!
It really is incredible that the economy is heavily dependent on a single track railway bridge that has been allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair it’s at risk of collapsing into the Danube. There has been concern from infrastructure experts for quite some time about the state of this bridge and precisely nothing has been done. Even the fact that trains can only cross at 5kph is a severe difficulty, restricting the capacity of the bridge to move all important cargo, it should have never been allowed to deteriorate to this parlous state.