The Hungarian government has approved the construction of a new railway bridge over the Danube in Budapest, launching a HUF 31 billion (EUR 85 million) project to replace the ageing Gubacsi railway bridge.
The investment is part of the government’s recently announced Baross Gábor Railway Development Plan and is intended to remove one of the country’s most significant bottlenecks for freight transport. Transport and Investment Minister Dávid Vitézy announced the decision on Facebook following Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.
Bridge has been limited to walking speed for more than a decade
According to Vitézy, trains have been restricted to just 5 km/h when crossing the Gubacsi railway bridge since 2014 because of its deteriorating condition.
The minister noted that despite the severe speed restriction, the bridge remains one of Hungary’s most important freight rail links, carrying an estimated 10–15% of the country’s total rail freight traffic.
Several months ago, fellow minister and local MP Vilmos Kátai-Németh even filmed himself outrunning a freight train crossing the bridge to highlight the scale of the problem.
“Today we can finally talk about the solution,” Vitézy wrote.
New bridge to eliminate major rail bottleneck
Construction of the new railway bridge is scheduled to begin at the end of 2026, with completion expected by the end of 2029.
Once finished, the project is expected to:
- remove one of Hungary’s most important railway bottlenecks;
- improve access to the Freeport of Csepel and nearby container terminals;
- enable more freight to shift from road to rail; and
- reduce heavy road traffic in the surrounding area.
The government also plans to begin preparing the modernisation of the road section of the Gubacsi bridge, along with improvements to the nearby Corvin junction.
Government considering future road bridge upgrade
Vitézy said the railway bridge already has completed construction plans and a valid building permit, but the project had previously been halted under the former government.
He added that the government will also examine whether the existing railway bridge structure could be converted and refurbished for heavy road traffic once rail services move onto the new bridge. If that proves technically impossible, a completely new road bridge may also be required in the future.
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Part of a larger railway revival
The minister described the Gubacsi bridge project as more than simply replacing ageing infrastructure. According to Vitézy, it symbolises an entire shift in transport policy after what he described as years of neglect, marking the beginning of a new period of long-term railway investment across Hungary.
The bridge replacement is one of the first major infrastructure projects announced under the government’s 10-year, HUF 3,550 billion railway modernisation programme, which also includes new rolling stock, station renovations, suburban rail improvements and preparations for an airport rail link.
Read more about it here: Hungary unveils EUR 10 billion railway modernisation: New trains, airport rail link and faster journeys promised!
This is a totemic project, symbolic of the chronic cash starvation the railways used to suffer. It would have cost, relatively, spare change to replace the exhausted bridge. Its utility, nay, its critical importance for freight and the wider Hungarian economy couldn’t be overstated. Yet, after a decade of 5kph restrictions and the genuine fear that it was going to collapse into the Danube with each train that passed over it, absolutely nothing was done. Nada. It wasn’t even on the radar of the erstwhile government. I genuinely believe that nobody in the previous government cared, least of all Janos Lazar. If it collapsed, they’d have hosed money at an endless convoy of lorries to move the containers it carries, spending the bridge replacement cost within a year on emergency transport. It was no different to walking into a casino and staking your salary on black.
They were shouldering risks with irresponsible and life threatening odds that could have led to the temporary incapacitation of the economy. For this and a great many other reasons Fidesz deserves to be ground into fine humous paste and served on flatbread with pickles. The faster they’re wiped off the face of the map the better for the population as a whole.