Budapest-Belgrade railway line: 300 kilometres of track built, huge project to be completed by the end of 2025

The new <a href="https://magyarepitok.hu/temak/budapest-belgrad-vasutvonal" target="_blank" rel="noopener"Budapest-Belgrade railway line has reached its most important milestone to date, as the laying of the last rail has completed the open-line track construction work outside the capital, meaning that the Hungarian section will be completed by the end of next year, announced Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Wednesday in Kiskőrös.

As previously reported about it, the huge project is being carried out by the Hungarian RM International Zrt. and the Chinese-owned China Tiejiuju Engineering & Construction Kft., and the Chinese China Railway Electrification Engineering Group (Magyarország) Kft., also from China.

Now, the minister responsible for the project's implementation, a prominent subcontractor, pointed out at the V-Híd machine demonstration event that

The construction of the Hungarian high-speed double-track section of the railway line is an investment of around HUF 800 billion, and the most important stage of this project has now been reached. Over the past period, V-Híd and its partners have built 150 kilometres of double-track railway, which means that roughly 300 kilometres of track will be laid

- said.

Overhead lines can be built

"Work is still underway in some stations, and preparations are being made for the installation of safety equipment. This will be followed by the overhead line construction works, we have already seen the poles and the construction of the Budapest section has started," he added.

"All this means (...) that by the end of next year the Hungarian section of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line will be fully completed and a new era of rail transport between Budapest and Belgrade will begin."

- he continued.

Budapest could rival Rotterdam via Piraeus

The minister also stressed that the Budapest-Belgrade railway line will bring significant benefits to Hungary, bringing it closer than ever to neighbouring Serbia and making it the most competitive freight route for goods from the Far East to the ports of Southern Europe and Western Europe.

He pointed out that trade between the European Union and China is worth around €800 billion a year, which is in the order of thousands of billions of euros for East Asia as a whole. "And a significant part of this is certainly coming by ship to southern Europe, from where these goods have to be transported by train to western Europe."

- he pointed out.

This line of thinking was recently expressed by Nándor Csepreghy, Deputy Minister of Finance rel="noopener">Építési és Közlekedési Minisztérium explained at one of the leading events in the domestic road and rail industry, the MAÚT30 international symposium.

Minister of Foreign Economic Affairs: the biggest high-speed rail development in Hungary's history is a success not only in Europe but also in the wider international arena

Péter Szíjjártó also pointed out that thanks to the project, suburban rail transport in Budapest is also set for a huge development, and an even greater share of freight and passenger transport in Hungary will be shifted to rail, which is the most environmentally friendly mode of transport.

"This is the largest and most complex rail transport development ever in the history of Hungary," he said. He noted that this is a large and complex railway construction project, even by European standards, and the fact that a Hungarian company could and can play a leading role in the project is a testimony to the change in the dimension of the Hungarian economy in recent years.

"With this work, V-Híd has made its mark not only in Europe but also internationally (...) We have the machines, we have the people, we now have 1200 people in the group and we have the reference", he said.

He let us know that

The output of the Hungarian railway construction industry has already increased sevenfold since 2010, with a value of roughly HUF 340 billion last year, an increase of more than 50 percent in one year.