Nearly 30 kilometres of the country's busiest railway line renewed

On 9 December, the renovation of the section between Biatorbágy and Szárliget on the Budapest-Győr-Hegyeshalom line MÁV No 1 was completed, according to a statement by MÁV. The 29-kilometre-long, double-track line was completed on time by MÁV subsidiary MÁV FKG.Following the completion of the works, trains will once again run on two tracks on the main line 1 from 10 December, and there will be no need to change to replacement buses.

The importance of the project lies in the fact that the Budapest-Győr-Hegyeshalom line is the busiest railway line in Hungary, with a InterCity to Szombathely, Sopron and a Railjet to Vienna and on to Western Europe every half hour and direction. In the meantime, passenger trains also run to Győr, Tatabánya, Oroszlány and the Budapest suburbs. The vast majority of freight trains also run on this line, creating a link between west and east.

Tight deadlines required hard work

According to the announcement, the preparation and the rebuilding were carried out with the exemplary cooperation of more than 1100 MÁV staff. "Over the course of three months, the refurbishment team worked 24 hours a day, in two shifts, in rain, wind and frost, to ensure that the refurbished track was back on schedule for passengers and freight operators by the time the new timetable came into force tomorrow," the statement said.

As we previously written, the renovation work originally planned for the first quarter of next year on the affected section of the line has been brought forward because the pace of deterioration previously identified has accelerated.

In the past three months, almost 100,000 concrete sleepers have been replaced on two 29-kilometre sections of track, under 120 kilometres of rails, and more than 100,000 tonnes of crushed stone in the ballast underneath. During the three-week period of the renovation, which involved a total lockout, all the work - such as water diversion or subgrade repair - was carried out, which required traffic to be suspended on both tracks.

During the entire closure, other maintenance work was carried out at Biatorbágy, Herceghalm, Bicske and Szár stops to improve passenger comfort. Platforms were renewed: about 150-200 metres of new, even asphalt pavement were laid at these locations. In addition, the façades of the station buildings and the walls of the waiting rooms, toilets and underpasses have been repaired and painted, and the rain shelters and benches have been cleaned and repaired.

Next spring, the retrofitting work will be done, but no replacement buses are needed

It is important to note that initially trains will only be able to run at 80 km/h on the renovated right section, with the final compaction of the ballast and substructure to be determined by the load during traffic. It is expected that the original speed of 140 km/h will be restored by the beginning of next year - by the end of the year on the left-hand track and from the beginning of the year on the right-hand track. During this 'running-in' phase, passenger trains will be subject to journey times that are 5-6 minutes longer and long-distance trains 8-10 minutes longer, and passengers will be informed in advance.

According to the announcement, in the spring of 2024, the retrofitting of the newly upgraded section will be completed, which will mean adapting it to weather conditions. Among other things, track and switch adjustments, ballast replacement and track tension release, as well as adjustment of the overhead contact line tension. "However, all this no longer causes inconvenience to passengers," the statement says.