railway

Huge shutdown coming to MÁV: Application, website, ticket offices affected

New passenger centre opened at Keleti station

The sale of railway tickets will be suspended until early dawn on Wednesday, the Hungarian State Railways, MÁV, reported.

Due to system maintenance, rail ticket sales will not be available on Wednesday from 0:00 to 3:00 in the timetable planner (Elvira), the MÁV application, ticket machines, on trains (ticket inspectors) and ticket offices, Mávinform said on its Facebook page.

Those buying a county or country ticket can find out in advance about the sales points on the orszagberlet.hu website, they said.

International train services change route due to wagons derail in Hungary

Hungary's public transport changes bus schedules

Two international train services operate on amended routes after a freight train derailed on Sunday shortly after noon, the Mávinform train information provider said on Facebook.

The affected services are the Maros Intercity service to Arad and the Fogaras InterCity to Brasov in Romania, Mávinform said on Monday.

On Sunday, nine of 17 wagons of a freight train operating between Szolnok and Békéscsaba derailed at Kétpó but the engine and eight wagons stayed on the tracks. Hazardous material was transported in four of the derailed wagons and one of them got damaged, as well as the railtracks and overhead lines.

Below is a video of the railway accident shared by MÁV:

Wagons carrying flammable freight derail in Hungary

freight wagons derailed near kétpó

A number of freight wagons derailed near Kétpó, in eastern Hungary, on Sunday, but there were no injuries, the police said.

Six of the train’s twelve wagons derailed for unknown reasons at 12:30 in the afternoon, the police said. Five of the derailed wagons were carrying flammable freight, according to information available at present, they added.

The disaster management authority told MTI two of the wagons were carrying liquid pesticide, classified as an environmental hazard. A mobile laboratory has been brought to the site, the authority added.

The accident has caused delays on the Budapest-Békéscsaba line.

Travel made simple: Changes to Hungarian rail services from 1 July

Hungary's public transport changes bus schedules

The Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) is implementing several changes to make the complex fare system and the overall travel easier for passengers. In addition to a number of other changes, the system of InterCity supplementary and seat tickets will be simplified. As of 1 July, passengers on InterCity trains and on non-IC trains that require a seat will be able to benefit from the advantages of the country season ticket introduced in May.

No more supplementary tickets

As of 1 July, the InterCity and high-speed train supplementary tickets will be discontinued on MÁV-START and GYSEV services. They will be replaced by new, uniformly priced seat tickets (helyjegy) in long-distance rail transport, MÁV announced.

Another change is that country season tickets will also be available for second-class travel on IC or other trains requring a seat ticket. The pricing of Smart tickets will also be adapted to the new charging system.

Overall, the changes from Saturday mean that the new county and country season tickets offer more passengers a cheap and simple solution for their daily commute than ever before.

What prices to expect?

Under the new fare system, which will come into force from 1 July, the existing IC supplementary tickets will be abolished. They will be replaced by uniformly priced seat tickets, which will also be available to IC train passengers with a country season ticket.

  • The price of an IC researved seat ticket is HUF 650 (EUR 1.75) if purchased in advance (i.e. the day before the train departure date) and HUF 990 (EUR 2.66) if purchased on the day of travel.
  • The price of premium (1+) class tickets will also change, with a uniform price of HUF 1990 (EUR 5.36).
  • On trains and parts of trains which are not IC-quality wagons, but which require a seat ticket, the price of the ticket will be HUF 300 (EUR 0.81).

Important: The country season ticket is still not valid for everything

Holders of a country season ticket can travel in second class on IC or other trains which require a seat ticket, provided they have the appropriate seat ticket.

However, the county season ticket will still not be valid on trains and sections requiring a seat ticket. What is more, in first and premium (1+) class, neither of the two new fare products (the county and the country season ticket) will be valid for travel, even if additional tickets are purchased.

Smart tickets undergo changes as well

The discounted ticket type, introduced in 2021 and available exclusively on the MÁV app and the new Elvira (the ticket purchase site of MÁV), has been available on all domestic InterCity trains since March this year.

The most important change is that from 1 July, the Smart ticket will only be available in advance, not on the day of travel.

All the settlements that have been accessible with Smart ticket will continue to be accessible, MÁV informs.

The redeemability of the Smart ticket has also changed: it can be redeemed no later than 12 hours before the start of its validity period.

Due to the change in seat ticket prices, the price of Smart tickets will also change, with only one fare level instead of two. Prices will vary, but in most cases will not increase above the previous higher fare levels.

No more free travel between Budapest Airport and busy railway station

nyugati_railway_station

IC trains between Nyugati railway station and Liszt Ferenc International Airport can again be used only by paying a surcharge. According to a statement by MÁV, the Hungarian State Railways, the reason for not having to pay on these trains so far was the renovation of metro line 3. However, the renovation works are now finished.

From Saturday, 1 July 2023, the InterCity-quality carriages and train compartments of trains running between Nyugati railway station and Budapest Airport will again be available only with the payment of the required surcharge, MÁV announced in a press release.

No more surcharge-free travel between the airport and Nyugati

The previously introduced exemption from surcharges during the reconstruction of the renovated M3 metro line has eased the inconvenience caused. In addition, for more than four years, all trains on the Budapest section of the Cegléd line could be used with a Budapest pass.

From Saturday 1 July 2023, these discounts will end. Budapest passes can only be used on the passenger trains (személyvonat), stopping trains (zónázó vonat), InterRegio trains and the surcharge-free part of the Szeged Sunshine InterCity (Napfény InterCity) trains. Meanwhile, for the surcharge trains, a surcharge must be added to the ticket for travel within Budapest.

More frequent service on the 100E line

As we reported earlier, from July, the buses will run more frequently on the 100E Airport Express line. The bus service between Deák Ferenc Square and Liszt Ferenc International Airport will be adapted to the increase in summer tourist traffic and the events in Budapest that attract a large number of foreign tourists.

New season tickets introduced for festival goers in Hungary!

Hungary festival

MÁV, the Hungarian State Railways, in cooperation with Volánbusz, Hungary’s main bus services provider, introduced a new season ticket for festival goers. Below, you may check out the details.

According to MÁV’s Facebook page, the Balaton Sound TravelPass debuted last year. Now, it can be bought between 26 and 30 June, and will be valid for seven days. You can use it for travel on the railway and buses on both banks of Lake Balaton. Furthermore, you will be able to travel between your accommodation and the venue of the Balaton Sound (28 June – 1 July), Zamárdi. Furthermore, you can try the narrow-gauge railway of Balatonfenyves.

During the festival, owl trains (Bagolyvonat) on the South bank will commute hourly all night. The Balaton Sound TravelPass can be bought first on 26 June. The last day you can do so is 30 June. They will be valid for seven days.

VIDEO: Lorry tore railroad crossing bar, then came the train

Driver truck lorry railway crossing bar

Nobody understands why the driver did that gruesome manoeuvre, but it could have cost his life, provided the train arrived earlier.

The video about the issue was shared by MÁV, the Hungarian State Railways. Since then, everybody would like to know why the truck driver tried to reverse on a railway crossing where such manoeuvres are forbidden. Anyway, this person did so but was not lucky enough. When the vehicle was in the centre of the railway crossing, the bars began to descend.

We do not know what the driver was thinking, but the lorry tore the bar down, and the driver escaped with full speed. Finally, a passerby replaced the broken bar.

MÁV said that they would report the issue to the police for vandalism. Furthermore, they draw everybody’s attention to keeping the road code (KRESZ). Here is the video:

Budapest mayor: 2024 draft budget would ‘bleed Budapest out’ further

Traffic Budapest Chain Bridge

Next year’s draft budget would “bleed Budapest out” even further, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

Government support for the city would come to HUF 34.5 billion (EUR 9.4bn), up from 33 billion this year, meaning that the real value of the funding would decrease, he said.

At the same time, the solidarity tax imposed on the city would increase from HUF 58 billion to 75 billion, he said.

“This year, the city funded the government with HUF 25 billion; next year, that funding would be over 40 billion,” he said.

That money could ensure the city’s operation for 82 days, he noted.

Meanwhile, the draft budget would also cut funding for “activities and services in localities and communities” by one-fifth, “exposing the lie” that the solidarity tax levelled at cities would help support smaller localities, he said. Environmental protection, social services and railways would also suffer, making the budget “not just anti-Budapest but an anti-municipality one”, he said.

Karácsony called on Budapest residents to give their opinions in an ongoing online survey on the city’s affairs.

“The extraordinary situation warrants extraordinary measures: we will take the government to court. We will prove not only that the anti-Budapest policy is harmful for the country but also that it is unlawful,” he said.

Shocking railway VIDEO: gruesome fatal accident averted last minute

MÁV railway accident

Watching the video posted by the Hungarian State Railway, MÁV, it is hard to imagine what the young woman had in mind when crossing the railway line while two trains were approaching in full swing.

It is fair to say that she had tremendous luck that day. It was only the matter of millimetres that she did not become chunks of flesh. As you can see, she aimed to cross the rails while a train was approaching. But then another train appeared on the tracks, closing fast. Or was this a suicide attempt on the woman’s side?

MÁV security cameras recorded the events. The woman stepped out on the rail tracks multiple times. As index.hu wrote, she probably failed to notice the other train arriving from the opposite direction. It is a downright miracle that she escaped the collision with the train. MÁV later revealed that the conductor pulled the emergency brakes the moment he spotted the woman and also gave an alarming signal. They added that crossing railways can be dangerous and asked all passengers to commute carefully. Here is the hair-raising video:

PHOTO: Germany did not allow 350 Hungarians to enter – their train was unacceptable

Hungarian train Germany (2)

More than 350 passengers found themselves hopeless on the platform of a Czech station after the German crew refused to take a Hungarian train due to its unacceptable technical condition.

According to iho.hu, the Hungária EuroCity was not allowed to enter Germany on 7 May. The Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) thought it was OK that the air-conditioning did not work in a carriage and one of the windows was broken. However, the German crew refused to take over from their Hungarian colleagues. Therefore, the train could not continue its journey towards Hamburg.

As a result, approximately 350 passengers remained on the platform of the train station of Děčín. However, neither the Hungarian company nor the German Deutsche Bahn (DB) offered help to them.

That was not the first time Germany did not allow a train to enter the country due to its technical condition. Last summer DB stopped multiple EuroCity trains coming from Prague because they did not have a dining car or it lacked carriages. Some Czech trains needed to be abandoned in Děčín, so locals are probably aware of why sometimes many people flood their streets asking for help to continue their journey.

Here is a photo:

And this is the train:

Shocking PHOTOS: Railway accident in Hungary

freight train accident railway

Several wagons of a freight train derailed between Hajdúhadház and Újfehértó, Hungary, on Sunday morning. Train traffic is suspended on this section due to technical rescue, Mávinform reported on the railway company’s website this morning. During a press conference on the accident, MÁV said that the restoration of the track section will take several days.

It will probably take several days to restore the railway track after the accident of a freight train derailed between Hajdúhadház and Újfehértó, said the head of the Debrecen regional directorate of MÁV Zrt, Hungary’s railway company.

Attila Hadnagy said that nine of the 35 wagons of a freight train carrying iron ore from Záhony via Hegyeshalom to Austria derailed. As a result, it completely blocked the electrified double-track section of the route.

Both tracks have been made impassable and the overhead line system has also been severely damaged, the expert said. He noted that the damage could be HUF hundreds of millions, napi.hu reports.

Mr Hadnagy added that no one was injured in the accident and passengers are transported by replacement buses between Hajdúhadház and Újfehértó.

The police and the railway safety service of MÁV Zrt. are investigating the cause of the accident.

Photos of the railway accident

In this infrastructural field, Hungary is competing with Switzerland

narrow-gauge rail network hungary

Hungary boasts an extensive narrow-gauge rail network, rivalled only by Switzerland and Ireland in terms of population per railway. Since 2017,  government-supported projects began to spread extensively in the country.

According to G7’s compilation, Hungary has the 8th most extensive narrow-gauge railway line infrastructure in Europe, an interesting feature of the Hungarian transport system and tourism.

No aggregated data on narrow-gauge railways are kept by international and national statistical offices, so it is no longer easy to say how long they are in each country. G7 used data from the OpenStreetMap database. However, this also means that there is no common research methodology for keeping statistics.

This means that narrow-gauge railways could include tourist or forest railways, narrow-gauge tramways connecting towns or villages, or freight or mining railways. According to G7, only Switzerland and Ireland have a larger network of light railways per capita than Hungary.

G7 mentions that while Switzerland has made excellent use of its natural assets and built up an internationally renowned industry of Alpine tourist trains, Hungarian small railways are far less well known. At the same time, Ireland generally does not make use of its narrow-gauge lines in terms of tourism, but it more regularly uses them for freight.

Read also: PHOTOS: New Budapest Airport shuttle buses to serve passengers from June

Secretive departments

The narrow-gauge tourist railway line has been at the centre of Hungarian public discourse, as a tourist line has been built in Felcsút, in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s home village.

In 2017, the government issued a decree allocating funds for the development of small railways for domestic tourism. However, little was known about the overall amount of money spent and the impact on railways passengers, as data collected by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) was not published. G7 had to launch a request for data of public interest, and they have received the data. However, it took the department a year to finally publish them.

As G7 mentions in their analysis, it was surprising to see that the state departments were so secretive. Between 2012 and 2019, domestic narrow-gauge rail passenger numbers increased by a fifth. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, in the last five years, the railways have received an investment of HUF 4.5 billion (EUR 12 million). The number of passengers carried was 1.1 percent of the number of passengers on the high-speed railways in 2021, which indicates low utilisation, and G7 has not found any data on whether foreign tourists are aware of the Hungarian narrow-gauge tourist lines.

Recently another huge Hungarian development started: BAHART is getting ready to upgrade its fleet at Lake Balaton with modern ships.

New passenger centre opened at Keleti station – photo gallery

New passenger centre opened at Keleti station

The modern and accessible Keleti Passenger Centre opened at dawn on Monday, MÁV announced on its website.

The new passenger centre, which is directly accessible from the metro underpass at Keleti station, offers full service for travel-related administration, ticket and season ticket purchase, for domestic and international, individual and group travel, MÁV official site said. In addition, the customer service department will also process comments and refunds in one place. It also handles lost items at the station or on the train arriving there. More details HERE.

The new passenger centre has 11 ticket counters, one of which is accessible. Two escalators on either side of the renovated main staircase leading to the track hall and two new lifts. For passengers, 111 luggage lockers, consisting of compartments and lockers of various sizes, have been installed in the passenger centre. And with 15 new ticket vending machines, a total of 26 are now in operation in the Keleti.

From 1 May, the new passenger centre will be open to passengers from 4.30am to 0.30am, seven days a week.

The development has created MÁV-START’s first fully complex passenger service area at the Keleti station, which handles more than 12 million journeys a year, the railway company said.

Court to decide about the future of Budapest’s southern ring railway line next week

Southern Railway Ring Budapest

The courts on Tuesday are expected to rule on the environmental permit for Budapest’s southern ring railway line (Déli Körvasút), according to business daily Vilaggazdaság’s online edition.

The Budapest municipality and the local authorities of the 11th and 9th districts earlier said the project would burden the city with cargo traffic. They turned to János Lázár, the construction and transport minister, proposing that the government commit to the construction of an alternative railway ring route (V0) around Budapest. Világgazdaság said that the southern railway line could be operational by 2027. Withdrawing the permit would put the entire project at risk, it said.

State Secretary Bálint Nagy said that the two projects were not mutually exclusive. “[Railway ring] V0 is one of the most important railway projects of the coming decades, and an internationally important one. Once it is ready, the southern railway line will become primarily passenger-focused,” he said. At the same time, the southern railway route would ease the commute for some 2,000,000 people travelling daily between the suburbs and Budapest, he said.

The project’s cost is estimated at 900-1,000 billion forints (EUR 2.4-2.7bn), and would be funded jointly from EU and domestic resources, deputy state secretary Artur Kikina said. The multiphase project would include a rail bridge over the railway tracks at the Danube end of the Ferencváros railway station and a new rail stop at Népliget, as well as developments around Kelenföld and Törökbálint from where it would be possible to connect to the high-speed railway between Budapest and Warsaw.

Here is a video:

PHOTOS: iconic and busy railway station of Budapest renewed

Budapest Keleti railway station

The passenger centre of Budapest’s Keleti railway station has been revamped for 1.9 billion forints (EUR 5m) with European Union and national funding, state secretary of the Ministry of Construction and Transport Bálint Nagy said on Tuesday.

The 1,542 sqm passenger centre has been upgraded to allow disabled access for ticket office counters, elevators and toilets, which have been equipped with vandal-resistant sanitary ware. The new centre will be opened on the first week of May. Keleti railway station is the main international and intercity railway terminal in Budapest. It receives almost 11 million people annually. Here are some photos:

Budapest horror story? Engine driver got in, shut the lighting, closed all doors and departed to an unknown destination

Train Budapest depart

The engine driver got in the locomotive, locked all doors, shut the lighting and started to drag a carriage out even though some people were still inside. The Hungarians State Railways, MÁV, apologised for what happened.

According to rtl.hu, the regular passenger train between Budapest and Szolnok (line S60) did not begin its journey from the railway track people got used to on 17 April. However, a carriage remained on the original track, so some people sat in and waited to travel to their destinations. However, something else happened. The engine driver turned down the lighting, closed all the doors and started to drag the train on a side track without properly checking whether there were people inside or not.

The passengers did not know that their 9.50 PM train to Szolnok would depart from another track as nobody informed them. The situation became weird only when it turned completely dark, and nobody could open any doors. Finally, the train started to move but not in the direction they expected.

Passengers acknowledged their fault

They heard the loudspeaker through the wheel rasping, but by then, the doors were closed, so nobody could leave. Thus, the passengers started to phone their relatives and the MÁV in panic.

The Hungarian State Railways said the train departed the Keleti Railway Station from another track due to a technical issue. Therefore, the engine driver was ordered to free the track from the remaining carriage. Before beginning to leave the station, he shut the lighting and waited for the cleaners to leave. Only after 200 meters did he realise that three passengers remained on board, so he escorted them back to the station.

MÁV apologised on behalf of their engine driver that he did not notice the passengers on board. Meanwhile, the passengers concerned also acknowledged that they were careless.

Featured image: illustration

Read also:

 

PHOTOS: 1,300-year-old, undisturbed Avar warriors found in Hungary

Avar warriors grave

Archaeologists found the graves of multiple Avar warriors buried with their weapons and decorated buckles in a sensational discovery in Hungary. The speciality of the finding is that most burial sites were not robbed. Experts hope the Belgrade-Budapest railway development project may result in further discoveries along the line.

A megaproject from Chinese loan

Hungary is renewing the Budapest-Belgrade railway line with the help of a gigantic Chinese loan. The project’s cost reaches HUF 700 billion (EUR 1.8 billion), making it the biggest-ever railway development project in Hungary’s railway history. 85 percent of that money is financed by a Chinese loan. Because of this, Hungary’s Western allies are outraged but they can do nothing. Critics say the railway line will never earn back the investment, and it only helps Chinese goods flow to the European markets.

Anyway, the project needs archaeological research since the new and the renewed old railway lines go through territories known to historians as burial sites or cemeteries. However, sometimes they make brand-new discoveries and find valuable sites. That is what happened near Kelebia.

Magyar Építők shared an on-field report about that and other ongoing archaeological projects. They said V-Híd Zrt., a subcontractor of the development megaproject, is committed to finding and preserving natural and historic values.

Undisturbed Avar warriors found

They work with the Katona József Múzeum in Kecskemét and are working on a site near Kelebia spanning several epochs. The site contains prehistoric, Sarmata and Avar artefacts. Kornél Sóskuti, a researcher of the Hungarian National Museum coordinating the excavations in the Southern section of the development project, told Magyar Építők that they carry out test excavations in areas where documents suggest they may find something which would be harmed or destroyed when the groundwork starts.

For example, close to Kelebia, they surprisingly found an Avar-age cemetery. It was used in the 700s and 800s and there are dozens of graves. Some of them were found by robbers, but not all. Despite that, they found artefacts in almost all of the graves.

Furthermore, in some of the graves, they found undisturbed warriors and other people with their weaponry, jewels, earrings, necklaces, buckles, ceramics, and even food and drink remains. Moreover, other graves are from the Sarmata era and the Middle Ages. The relevant excavations are still in progress.

Mr Sóskuti said they expected to find even more in the area because preliminary analysis results are promising. HERE you may find some photos of the graves and the Avar warriors buried there.

Thanks to the railway development project, the speed limit for trains will jump to 160 km/h on a 150-km-long segment.

Featured image: illustration

Superfast railway line between Budapest Airport and the downtown?

Superfast-railway-connection

We reported before about a plan to build a railway line between the biggest Hungarian airport and Budapest’s downtown. We looked after the project and tried to find out when it might be ready. But you may not like our results.

Superfast railway to the airport from EU money

We wrote about the ambitious plan of creating a superfast railway connection between Hungary’s main air gate, the Ferenc Liszt International Airport and Budapest’s downtown several times. Our last article on the issue, published in 2020, before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, was about the question of a Hungarian MP, Péter Ungár, concerning the plans. Secretary Tamás Schanda said then that the construction of the new fast railway line would start in 2021, and the government planned to use the 2021-2027 EU development funds to back it financially.

Of course, nothing happened. In October, the head of the Budapest Development Centre (BFK), Dávid Vitézy, said in a Facebook comment that the airport did not decide. And without their consent, nobody can build a railway line there, he added. Before, hvg.hu wrote that the Chinese CRRC wanted to create a superfast railway connection there.

Since then, many things changed. First, the government does not seem to get the money in the EU development funds allocated for Hungary soon. Secondly, the coronavirus pandemic hit Hungary hard and reduced airport traffic for two years significantly. Afterwards, Russia invaded Ukraine, and an economic and energy crisis started in Hungary. Therefore, the government needed to make multiple hard decisions concerning several projects the BFK wanted to realise in the capital and its neighbourhood.

6-storey-high parking garage and other plans

János Lázár, the Minister of Construction and Transport, crossed several proposals recently. According to a list leaked to the press, the government no longer wants to build the superfast railway line or widen and develop the fast road. If the comments in the list are valid, in the former issue, the government at least has some plans, but in the latter one, nothing happened, it was just the idea that was born. Even so, telex.hu wrote that the plans will be made for that project. Here is a visual from 2020:

Interestingly, before 2020, the government wanted to build a huge, 6-storey-high parking garage near the airport, but later, they threw out the idea. Here is a photo of it:

But the Orbán cabinet did not change its mind about buying back the airport. According to napi.hu, Márton Nagy, Hungary’s economy minister, acknowledged that the government was in talks with the owners. He added buying back the airport is in the country’s national strategic interest.

A research fellow at the University of Public Service, Zoltán Felméry, said that the estimates regarding the price range around HUF 1,500 billion (EUR 4 billion). That reaches 4-5 percent of the state expenditures.