Szeged railway station and its surroundings could benefit from a comprehensive transport development project

The Építési és Közlekedési Minisztérium has launched a design tender for the development of suburban transport between Szeged and Makó. The successful bidder will be responsible for preparing planning and construction drawings as part of the phased project, as well as carrying out design supervision duties.

The public procurement refers to the project’s feasibility study (MT-2021), which was prepared in 2021 under the title „Development of the Szeged–Makó suburban rail service and construction of a mixed-traffic bridge over the Tisza”. According to the version proposed by MT-2021, the missing section of Szeged’s Nagykörút between Alsóváros and Újszeged will be built as a separate project alongside the Tisza bridge.

The local bus station would be built next to the railway station

The successful tenderer for the public procurement in question will, among other things, design the following project elements, taking into account the complex variants examined in MT-2021:

• the reconstruction of the railway infrastructure at Szeged railway station;
• the development of Szeged railway station as a functional unit together with Szeged-Rendező station;
• an assessment of the tram-train and passenger railway station alignments proposed in the project for the construction of the new Tisza bridge between Alsóváros and Újszeged, and the integration of the selected alignment into the station connections;
• a preliminary track layout study for Szeged railway station, in the context of the planned underpass (approximately 60 metres long) and future platform connections;
• an MT-level assessment of land-use options in the vicinity of the station, with particular regard to the disused Szeged-Tisza railway station site;
• Development of an Intermodal Public Transport Hub (HTCS); as part of this, the construction of a bus station and parking facilities adjacent to the coach station, linked to the railway station and Indóház Square, and the establishment of interchange connections;
• the internal refurbishment of the Szeged railway station building, covering an area of approximately 5,200 m²: internal refurbishment to the extent necessary to accommodate operational functions, serve passenger traffic and fulfil the core tasks of the HTCS;
• a pedestrian footbridge connecting the bus station and the railway station, approximately 60 metres long and 12 metres wide, with a connecting staircase leading to platform level;
• the reconstruction of Szövetkezeti út over a length of approximately 460 metres, including the replacement of the wearing course and the reconstruction of the pavement;
• the renovation of the Máglya-sori road tunnel and the approach road, over a length of approximately 1.1 km;
• Design of two Park-and-Ride facilities with a total capacity of 616 spaces; construction of a 110-space Park-and-Ride car park on the eastern side of the railway embankment, as well as a 10-space Catch-and-Ride and taxi rank;
• construction of a new cycle route from the junction planned at the approach to the new Tisza Bridge to the HTCS bus station section, over a distance of approximately 350 metres;
• design of an intelligent passenger information system.

It was built as the country’s second railway bridge over the Tisza, but was demolished over 80 years ago

Although the completion of Szeged’s Nagykörút with the construction of the new Tisza Bridge is not the subject of this project, the two developments are closely linked. Szeged, which currently has two road bridges over the Tisza, has not had a railway bridge since 1945, meaning there is no connection between Szeged railway station on the west bank of the river and Újszeged railway station on the east bank. The bridge serving the railway line connecting Szeged with Timișoara and the Banat was built in 1858 as the country’s second railway bridge over the Tisza, but it was destroyed during the Second World War.

Following the accession of Hungary and then Romania to the EU, the city began planning a third bridge over the Tisza in the 2000s, but was unable to secure funding for the project. As part of the preparatory steps, in 2016 we reported that, according to the previous environmental permit for Nemzeti Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő (NIF) Zrt. was planned as a mixed-use bridge for the third bridge in Szeged, in accordance with its previous environmental permit. According to the plans published at the 2022 public hearing for NIF Zrt. a road and pedestrian-cyclist bridge would be built, which would be suitable for serving rail traffic in the long term.