Hungarian rail transport in danger: MÁV struggles to serve traffic
A week ago the news broke that the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) is closing 10 railway lines in Hungary. The lines concerned will be regional ones, not main ones. MÁV justified this step citing labour and vehicle shortage. According to Dávid Vitézy, former state secretary for transport, the Orbán government is doing something with the closure of the railway lines that it fought against in opposition.
10 lines to be closed, 8 could be saved
According to Dávid Vitézy, 8 of the 10 closed lines could be saved. Closing rail lines is hardly a way to save money anyway, Mr Vitézy told hvg.hu. He believes there is no chance of competition for passengers in the domestic rail passenger market in the next decade.
MÁV admitted that it was unable to provide the public service ordered and paid for from it.
“The closure of the 10 branch lines is sad not only because eight of them could probably be saved, because they are viable and have a vision, or because it contradicts the narrative of Minister János Lázár, who promises rural development with the slogan ‘now it’s time for the countryside’, but also because it is true for the railway network that if we only maintain the arteries, the limbs will die”, the former state secretary added.
It’s getting increasingly hard for MÁV to serve traffic
He said that the total savings planned to be achieved by the current line closures do not even reach the salary of a MÁV director per line in a month. Mr Vitézy also told hvg.hu that he believes MÁV is finding it increasingly difficult to serve traffic throughout the country.
There is no public procurement for new vehicles. The old ones have been withdrawn due to the worsening economic situation. What is more, many of the ICs are running with missing or unair-conditioned, dilapidated coaches. We wrote HERE about how much MÁV struggles with ICs and how it may not even survive this summer.
What could be the solution?
Dávid Vitézy underscored that he sees the solution to the problems in marketisation and privatisation. In his view, the state should put MÁV out to tender to private companies and gradually reduce the monopoly of the state railway company if it is unable to provide an adequate level of service.
According to him, the market is changing all over Europe. It is not the Hungarian state-socialist MÁV model that is typical. In other countries, state operators only provide the railway track and fix the tariff level for the public service, while several operators compete for the provision of services.
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