Transport minister suggests some railway buildings can become shopping centres
The renovation of 1,000 km of railway tracks could begin in the coming period and the necessary funds are fully available for this, Construction and Transportation Minister János Lázár said at a hearing before Parliament’s economic committee on Tuesday.
Lázár cited lots of numbers
The minister said that 103 projects had been completed since 2010 with some HUF 2,091bn spent on building railways. He noted that a loan from the European Investment Bank has helped replace the suspended 55pc of transport funds allocated to Hungary, but the withheld amount will also arrive.
Lázár said he considers it a significant achievement that the railway’s ability to keep to its timetable has improved to around 80pc, and that the minimum level of service is now set by law. He said since 2022 the number of trips on public transport has increased from 600m to 1.2bn annually.
Road renovations will need significant funding
The minister said the state manages 31,000 km of domestic roads and the total gross value of the 305 road construction projects in progress is HUF 1,327bn. Only three out of 25 county seats or equivalent cities are waiting for expressway connections, while 11 highways now reach the borders of the country, up from 3 in 2010, he added.
Lázár said Hungary gains a strategic advantage and influence if connections to the West run through here, and he noted that road renovations will continue to need significant funding and the failure to provide funding for these could result in serious economic damages.
The majority of the around HUF 880bn annual highway toll revenue is paid by international freight carriers, he noted.
No money to renovate large railway stations
Lázár said his ministry currently manages 566 investment projects with a total value of HUF 3,065bn. Of the previously suspended investments worth almost HUF 5,500bn the amount of those restarted is already approaching HUF 3,300bn.
Answering questions the minister expressed his fear that there will be no funding for railway and road developments from the next EU funding cycle unless they can be classified as at least partially defence investments.
Lázár said he sees no chance that MÁV Group will completely renovate large railway stations in the coming years using only its own funds, but this is not necessary as some railway buildings not used for railway purposes are also operated as shopping centres elsewhere in Europe, with the participation of business partners.
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Featured image: Westend in Budapest next to the Nyugati railway station. Business and development. Source: depositphotos.com
My time living in Germany showed me how positive rail travel can be.
There you do not have to have car – and all the problems and expence that go with that.
And one way to make rail travel more attractive is to make the stations a destination, in and of themselves.
As to the money – it will come, but, sometimes projects have to wait for 5 or 10 years.
why Hungay is always years delayed in compare with European countries or even Poland where all train stations are inside shopping malls for decades now. Why is so hard for Hungary to copy good modern proyects? Why they didn’t build the Arena Plaza inside Keleti Palyaudvar????? It would be a modern train station if they did that. Go and check Krakow train station or Hauptbahnhof in Viena or Germany or Switzerland. Just copy what they do. Hungary always has a huge delay comparing to neighbours. Not only proyects but also offers for vapers, there are none while tobacco is always allowed without restrictions. It seems like corruption to favor tobacco companies and screw vapers which is not happening in developed countries like Austria, Germany or even Poland or Slovakia. Is a shame the westbalkan mentality of Hungary is always backwards