There are plenty of problems with Hungarian railways
Even in the summer season, there are plenty of problems with the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV). Passengers regularly complain that even though they have bought an Intercity ticket, they have to board old high-speed coaches without air conditioning on board. There are also many cases where the train runs with fewer carriages than planned. As a consequence, the seats for which the ticket would be valid do not exist. Delays and crowding on trains are also common.
Problems during peak season
In the summertime, more people travel on Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) trains than at other times of the year. The most popular destination is undoubtedly Lake Balaton. MÁV-Start has to send more trains and wagons to Lake Balaton due to the increased traffic around the lake. As a result, there are fewer wagons in the rest of the country. As a result, there are fewer wagons available for service. In particular, there is a shortage of conventional InterCity wagons. MÁV is trying to compensate for this problem by putting new wagons into service under the InterCity+ programme.
However, the number of IC and IC+ wagons is not sufficient to absorb the traffic, 444.hu reports. The number of repairs and main inspections needed to extend the life of the cars is constantly being reduced due to a lack of funds. These wagons are long due to being repaired. According to Áron Szalay, a founding member of the Transporting Mass Association, these wagons were supposed to be repaired years ago.
Even for minor malfunctions, cars can be parked for years. The Russian-Ukrainian war also takes a toll on the railway services. The shortage of spare parts has hit MÁV-Start hard, Szalay said. The number of wagons out of service can also be seen on the Who Knows public data request page. MÁV has 54 IC wagons of the Bpmz type, out of which 10 are waiting for the main inspection. Several of them have been out of service since 2016. This means that almost one in five wagons is not in service.
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European Union target
The European Union’s so-called White Paper sets ambitious targets: by 2030, a third of road freight transport over 300 kilometres should be replaced by rail, and this figure should be 50 percent by 2050. Currently, 7 percent of passengers and 11 percent of goods travel by train in Europe.
Outdated, ageing vehicles are not the only problem in Hungary. Apart from congestion, meeting the scheduled journey time can also be tricky. On average, the trains owned by MÁV are 43 years old. This is also reflected in the speed. MÁV has 79 Intercity+ trains in its own factory. They can potentially reach 160-200 kilometres per hour but it is rarely the case, writes magyarnemzet.hu.
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Source: 444.hu, magyarnemzet.hu