The XVth district of the capital would prevent rail development in the agglomeration

The 15th district filed an environmental lawsuit against the development of the 71st Veresegyház-Vác railway line, which it won in the first round, according to Dávid Vitézy's Facebook post. The case is similar to that of the Southern Circular Railway, which is discussed in reported on numerous occasions.

As we previously reported in our newspaper, based on the Budapest Agglomeration Railway Strategy, plans are underway to increase the capacity and standard of railway line 71, which includes making all stops and stations accessible and renovating the buildings and their surroundings.

According to the entry, when the strategy was prepared, the studies identified this line as one of the railways with the greatest potential for passenger growth, and therefore one of the largest reserves for reducing car traffic from the agglomeration to Budapest.

Today's single-track line branches off the main line at Rákospalota-Újpest and reaches Vác via Fót, Őrbottyán and Veresegyház. The three main settlements are home to 51,000 inhabitants, a population that has grown by over 10% in the last decade. The hourly train service is now clearly inadequate to serve such a large area, the transport expert says.

The government decided to prepare the project in 2021, the Budapest Development Centre has launched the design tenders and the planning has started.

A significant length of the current single-track line was planned to be extended to two tracks, and the Rákospalota-Újpest station will have to be renovated because the station's capacity is not up to the level required by the increase in traffic. However, it is not only passenger facilities that need to be improved. Because of the dense train crossings, design modelling has confirmed that a separate level of rail junction, a crossing structure, i.e., a railway overpass, would need to be built.

Aesthetic problems previously criticised have been remedied

During the planning phase, there were several consultations with the XVth district, during which mainly aesthetic objections were raised, so the BFO focused on making the design of the monument as disturbing as possible to the view of the area.

Dávid Vitézy also pointed out in his post that the construction of the structure does not require expropriation, it would be built on MÁV areas, and no freight trains would run on it, as there is no freight traffic on the Veresegyháza line, only the quiet electric motor trains that already run on the line would continue to run here in the future. Despite this, a lawsuit has been filed against the project by the 15th district.

In the plaintiff's action, District XV argued that it did not agree with the rail development "near a protected suburban area" and requested that the at-grade crossing be maintained. They argued that the railway works would cause "the disruption of the living conditions of hundreds of people", but could not substantiate this.

The project is on the list of grants sent to the EU

In the lawsuit against the environmental permit, the court found that the document "only indicates that the increased rail traffic could only be accommodated by a separate level crossing with the existing track connections." In the court's view, this reasoning does not meet the requirements, as a separate level crossing is less favourable from a townscape and noise point of view than a level crossing, and the court would have expected a much more thorough justification.

In the closing lines of the post, Dávid Vitézy informs that the project is included in the list of the ICOP Plus projects sent and approved by the government to the European Commission, among the transport investments supported by the EU cycle, and although these funds are currently suspended, but as soon as this situation changes, the funds for the construction will be secured.

The expert expressed the hope that by then, litigation will no longer be an obstacle to this investment.