Hungarian railways in huge trouble, MÁV is decades behind

The MÁV-Volán group has admitted that the railway company’s rolling stock and tracks are ageing and the air conditioning is not working. Experts say a change of mindset is easy and will pay for itself in 15-30 years.

Hungarian railways in trouble

“The Balassagyarmat-Losonc railway line has lived 127 years. The 127-year chapter in the history of Balassagyarmat and the Ipoly Valley has come to an end,” reads the text on the last carriage running between the two towns. But the Hungarian railways are dying and in difficulty in many other places too.

MÁV is using buses instead of trains to serve passengers on 10 regional railway lines, citing a shortage of vehicles and passengers. This means longer journey times in many cases.

The MÁV-Volán group told 24.hu that due to the lack of power, many developments and vehicle purchases are not possible. The average age of the rolling stock reaches 40-50 years, even though they have modernised their fleet with more than 200 new vehicles in the last decade.

“The railway company has an ageing fleet and an ageing track: servicing and maintenance alone will not keep it competitive. Unfortunately, the maintenance of the existing fleet is also made considerably more difficult by the war in our neighbourhood: in many cases, it is impossible to obtain spare parts or it costs much more money and time than before. The collapse of supply chains and difficulties in the supply of materials have also accelerated the deterioration of track conditions: the wheel and bogie failures of our rolling stock are largely caused by the condition of the track, while the time and cost of procuring these very parts has increased many times over because of the war,” MÁV says.

MÁV has also admitted that only a quarter of its trains have air conditioning. Many trainsets do not even have normal modern air conditioning, but air-conditioning equipment that does almost nothing to cool the air above 30-35 degrees Celsius.

What is the solution, is there a way out?

According to former State Secretary for Transport Dávid Vitézy, transport policy is stuck in the 20th century. “While in the eastern part of the country, motorways with low utilisation are still being built with Hungarian taxpayer and budget funds, the transport government is closing down the regional railway network,” Vitézy said.

The expert said transport development should be shifted from roads to railways. Rail is the most sustainable mode of transport for both freight and passenger transport. In his view, it is untenable that MÁV-Start just throws up its hands, announces that it is unable to provide the service and “the government slavishly accepts this”, while GYSEV, for example, can operate innovatively and provide a good service with the same amount of money, napi.hu writes.

Vitézy said there is a huge backlog in the rail fleet. In particular, a new fleet of InterCity trains, new suburban trains and a new fleet of regional service trains would be needed.

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