Significant EU funding for the second phase of the Southern Circular Railway project

The European Commission will provide more than €7 billion in EU funding to 134 transport projects, including nine Hungarian initiatives to build sustainable, safe and intelligent transport infrastructures, the Brussels-based body said on Wednesday.

80% of the €7 billion earmarked for rail improvements

- the Communication underlines.

Not just the Southern Circular Railway

Hungary will benefit from €306 million in funding for nine investments, four of which are national projects and the others are multi-country EU initiatives involving national organisations. The funding is a grant which can be used by Member States to co-finance the total cost of the project.

They include

• for the construction of the Southern Circular Railway in Budapest,
• 35 projects to equip locomotive MÁV-START with the European Train Control System (ETCS) and to upgrade the secure and protected lorry parking at Tata,
• and the second phase of the project to increase the capacity of the Hungarian-Ukrainian railway border crossing points, which are part of the EU-Ukraine solidarity corridors.

The Southern Circular Railway will also improve transport in Budapest, the conurbation and across EU borders

Also related to this news, post on his Facebook page shortly after it was published. He reflected on the fact that the European Commission had recently published a list of investments supported under the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility).

He added:

"In addition to minor improvements, we have won €290 million in EU funding for the modernisation of the Budapest-Kelenföld-Ferencváros railway line (equivalent to around HUF 113 billion - editor's note).The second phase of the Southern Circular Railway will not only improve transport in Budapest and the surrounding area, but also the network of railway lines connecting the countries and cities of the continent. We will improve public transport throughout the region."