Hungarian Socialists call on govt to develop fixed track transport rather than buying airport
The opposition Socialists have called on the government to use central budget resources on an overall development of fixed track transport in Hungary rather than buying an airport, the party’s deputy leader said on Monday.
The country’s railway and suburban rail network “is in shambles” because the Fidesz government has failed to spend money on developing its fixed track and community transport infrastructure in the past ten years, Laszlo Varga told a press conference.
He said community transport “is living its renaissance all over Europe”, adding that “fixed track systems are the greenest and most sustainable form of transport”.
“The government is now preparing to spend some 1,536 billion forints (EUR 4.5bn) on buying an airport which it should spend on developing the country’s rail system,” said Varga.
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People who espouse an ideology that has been an abject, miserable failure in every single one of the dozens of places all over the world it’s been tried over the course of a century are not people to be taken in any way seriously.
The economy needs the domestic transport system to function but it’s breaking down due to government underinvestment. Fidesz instead is wasting government resources buying the airport and Vodafone. Fidesz should not be spending taxpayers’ money buying what should be private businesses that are already capitalized and managed by private enterprise. The opposition Socialists are putting forward a common sense idea. Fidesz is too busy trying transfer enterprises to party connected oligarchs and helping their purchases with taxpayers’ money. It’s all about creating a Russian style economy concentrated into the hands of oligarchs like Meszaros with money skimmed off into the hands of the Fidesz elite.
We can expect the standard of service to decline and prices at BUD airport to balloon following the change in ownership. Airports and the service providers therein are inherently monopolies liable to abuse, factor in majority state ownership and the writing’s on the wall. The cost of food and drink was already high for often poor quality, expect these prices to increase a further 50% once the handover takes place. Concessions to operate outlets in the terminals will be handed out in an intransparent manner to those willing the grease the most palms. I’ve witnessed this at other airports in the CEE region leading to offensively poor quality for exceedingly high prices because you ‘don’t have a choice’. Also expect the variety of outlets to decline as part of the clamp down on price competition for the same product. The same operator will end up with multiple outlets across the airport and can engage in price fixing for basics like a bottle of water or a coffee.
Dear Micheal, thank you for your honest assessment of the Orban ideas. Finally you have seen the light!