MÁV breaks new record: 67 percent of trains were late in August

Hungary Budapest-Vienna railway line máv
Photo: FB/MÁV

The Hungarian State Railways, MÁV, has set a new negative record in August, with a record percentage of trains running late. Dávid Vitézy, a former candidate for Mayor of Budapest, has delivered a scathing critique of János Lázár.

MÁV sets a new negative record, Vitézy blames Lázár

Forbes writes that in August, over 67% of Hungarian InterCity trains experienced delays of more than five minutes, marking a significant decline in punctuality. Only 32.8% of trains arrived on time, the worst performance since records began. Dávid Vitézy, a former state secretary and candidate for Mayor of Budapest, highlighted this issue on social media, noting a dramatic deterioration in the reliability of Hungary‘s rail services in recent years. Vitézy wrote:

More than 67% of Hungarian InterCity trains were more than five minutes late in August this year. This is due to a series of poor decisions made by János Lázár.

Hungarian government launches public transport action plan (Copy)
Photo: FB/János Lázár

The ongoing issues with the Hungarian railways are not new, but Vitézy attributes the recent decline to János Lázár, the transport minister. According to Vitézy, Lázár halted all railway vehicle purchases and stopped track renewals and upgrades, leading to an increase in track defects due to reduced funding and declining revenues. Additionally, vehicle failures have increased following the centralised dismantling of MÁV’s maintenance system, and a shortage of spare parts has resulted in a growing number of InterCity coaches and motor trains being permanently out of service. Vitézy added:

If government decision-makers deceive themselves into thinking that there is nothing to see here, because MÁV has always been subpar, and the Hungarian public is accustomed to it, then they are only deluding themselves. The situation of the Hungarian railways was never perfect, but the deterioration is, unfortunately, quite stark this year. In just a few years, punctuality has plummeted from over 70 percent to 32.8 percent, the worst in Europe today – we are no longer lagging behind Austria, but Romania.

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