Hungary’s state railway operator, MÁV, is to lease ten InterCity carriages from the Austrian Federal Railways to cope with summer traffic to Lake Balaton, Transport and Investment Minister Dávid Vitézy announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
MÁV unable to manage seasonal surge in passenger numbers
The minister argued that “one of the consequences of the railway-destroying policies of recent years” has been MÁV’s inability to manage the seasonal surge in passenger numbers during the Balaton summer period, the Hungarian News Agency wrote.
The situation remains acute. Owing to the collapse of the Dunakeszi rolling stock maintenance facility and the suspension of major overhauls for InterCity carriages, MÁV currently has fewer operational long-distance coaches than it did last year or even the year before, Vitézy stressed. Immediate action was therefore required, he added, with leasing proving the quickest and most effective solution.
At the same time, work is under way on a more durable remedy: the comprehensive renewal of Hungary’s long-distance rail fleet. This, the minister noted, must “virtually be started from scratch”, after tenders for the programme were withdrawn by his predecessor at the end of 2022.
Bad relations with Austria
Vitézy also characterised the agreement with Austria as a marked departure from the previous government’s approach. “János Lázár did everything in his power to ensure the worst possible relations with the Austrians,” he said.
He recalled that in November 2023 the Austrian deputy chief executive of Győr-Sopron-Ebenfurti Vasút (GYSEV) was dismissed with immediate effect, and attempts were made to force Austrian stakeholders out of the company. In response, the Austrian state launched legal proceedings against Hungary.
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“In recent years, there was barely even a working dialogue between the two sides,” the minister added. “Within a matter of weeks, we have managed to restore relations to the point where agreements of this kind are once again possible.”
The episode, he suggested, demonstrates that meaningful results can be achieved swiftly if issues are approached not with “arrogance and hubris”, but with a willingness to cooperate and to find solutions.
Vitézy added that he would travel to Vienna later this week with Péter Magyar and several members of the government, with the aim of placing bilateral relations on a new footing in even more significant areas.
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The erstwhile government thought they’re the kurucok and the Austrians were the labancok while seeking to extinguish their participation in the Hungarian economy (viz. Spar, Erste Bank, GYSEV and others). When push came to shove, without rented Austrian carriages Hungarians wouldn’t be able to get to Balaton for a long weekend of sun, fried hekk and Kobanyai vilagos.
OEBB will gadly accept Hungarian money to provide carriages retired from regular service for the Austrians invested in Railjet trains 15 years ago and have no need for these antique carriages. Perhaps they kept them in storage knowing that they could realise a solid revenue stream when their backward neighbours messed up and would come knocking. As they say here, it’s money for old rope and serves to make OEBB less reliant on state subsidy.