A serious railway accident disrupted traffic on one of Hungary’s key eastern rail routes on Thursday afternoon after an InterCity train derailed near Gyomaendrőd in southeastern Hungary. According to the state railway company MÁV, one passenger suffered serious injuries and another was lightly hurt in the incident.

The affected service was the Békés InterCity (IC 7404), which departed Budapest’s Keleti Railway Station at 12:10 PM bound for Lőkösháza near the Romanian border, MÁV reported.

Four derailed carriages damaged hundreds of metres of track

MÁV said the train derailed shortly after leaving Gyoma railway station under circumstances that remain unclear. The locomotive and five-carriage trainset saw four carriages leave the tracks, causing major damage along approximately 300 metres of railway line.

Although the carriages tilted during the derailment, they did not overturn completely. Emergency services, including firefighters and paramedics, were dispatched to the scene, while replacement buses were arranged to transport stranded passengers onward.

According to MÁV chief executive Zsolt Hegyi, around 240 passengers were travelling on the train at the time of the accident.

Injured passenger airlifted to hospital

Hegyi later confirmed that one passenger sustained serious injuries and had to be airlifted to hospital by rescue helicopter. He said the injured passenger had reportedly been returning from the toilet to their seat when the derailment occurred. Another passenger suffered lighter injuries.

“The exact cause of the accident can only be determined through a thorough investigation,” Hegyi wrote in a social media update, adding that the immediate priority was ensuring passengers’ safety and organising their onward journey.

Minister Dávid Vitézy travelling to accident site

Hungary’s Transport and Investment Minister Dávid Vitézy also reacted quickly to the incident, confirming that both he and the MÁV chief executive were travelling to the site.

Vitézy noted that the railway line had undergone renovation only a few years ago. He reiterated that while the train carriages had not toppled over, the derailment still resulted in serious personal injuries.

Major disruption on the Békéscsaba railway line

Following the derailment, MÁV warned passengers to expect significantly longer travel times on the Békéscsaba line, with replacement buses operating between Gyomaendrőd and Csárdaszállás while railway traffic remains suspended.

Thursday’s incident marked the second train derailment in Hungary within a single day. Earlier in the morning, a passenger train derailed near Nyugati Railway Station, although no injuries were reported in that case. The earlier accident nevertheless caused considerable delays in rail services.

UPDATE: Vitézy: The train exceeded the speed limit

According to preliminary investigations, the train that derailed at Gyoma Station significantly exceeded the speed limit at the switch, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure reported on his social media page on Thursday.

Dávid Vitézy wrote on Facebook that he had just officially taken over the Ministry of Transport from János Lázár when MÁV notified him of the derailment of the Békés InterCity train at Gyoma station. He added that one person suffered minor injuries and another serious injuries on the derailed train.

The minister stated that emergency responders had evacuated all passengers from the train, and that the re-railing of the cars and the repair of the significantly damaged track are expected to take place over the next 48 hours.

It is important to note that this track was renovated in 2017 using EU funds, is capable of speeds up to 160 kilometres per hour, and is equipped with a train control system that could have prevented this accident with absolute certainty, he pointed out.

According to him, this did not happen because the locomotive pulling the Békés InterCity is not equipped with a device capable of interfacing with the train control system: “In other words, it lacks the onboard computer that would allow for immediate central intervention to slow the train down in the event of speeding.”

Dávid Vitézy noted that the problem has been known for a long time; most recently, in December 2022, the Transportation Safety Organisation called on the Lázár Ministry, which had just taken office at the time, to address it, but nothing happened, and they received no response. Instead, the outgoing government spent the money on everything else, he pointed out.

He went on to say that the inability to reach speeds of 160 kilometres per hour on this line is due not only to the lack of train control systems, but also to the unsuitability of the 40- to 50-year-old, outdated cars. “The procurement of new InterCity cars was also halted at the end of 2022 by the minister who stepped down today—this task also awaits us,” he wrote.

According to the minister, the specific circumstances of the accident are being investigated by the police, the Transport Safety Authority, and MÁV, but one lesson that can already be drawn is that funds must finally be allocated to upgrading on-board train control systems and replacing InterCity cars. “This is what I mean when I say: instead of dismantling the railways, we must finally usher in an era of railway development,” stated Dávid Vitézy, who wished the injured a speedy recovery.

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