The MÁV group will be restructured next year and 317 kilometres of railway lines will be renewed

It will be split off and will become a separate department in the MÁV group. The 3+1 organisational units will be MÁV, Volánbusz, MÁV Személyszállítási Zrt., MÁV Szolgáltatóközpont Zrt. and MÁV Pályaműködtetési Zrt., which will be formed by the merger of MÁV-HÉV, and will be combined by MÁV Zrt. as group manager.

Technical problems on half of the section used by passenger traffic

The changes, which will be implemented at the beginning of next year, were announced by Bálint Nagy, the Minister of State for Transport Építési és Közlekedési Minisztérium (ÉKM) at an event organised by the Free Trade Union of Engineers and Technicians in Budapest. In his speech he also presented the plans for 2025. Among these, he highlighted the renewal of the railway network, which is 8218 kilometres long in Hungary, of which 6926 kilometres are used for passenger transport. Of the latter, Bálint Nagy added, 3,347 kilometres, i.e. about 50 percent of the sections used for passenger traffic, are speed-limited and have technical problems.

800 billion forints in loans and own resources to develop the railway

The biggest challenge for the ability to keep the timetable is the technical condition of the lines, with a significant proportion of delays caused by track faults. EU funding for rail development in Hungary is uncertain, so investments can be started from own resources and loans.
The State Secretary said that at the beginning of next year, the plan is to borrow €1 billion from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which will be supplemented by €1 billion of own resources. This will allow for a total of around HUF 800 billion in investments.

Upgrading the tracks will make the timetable more sustainable

Upgrading sections can improve the throughput of a railway line and improve the punctuality of trains by increasing track speed. 317 kilometres of track will be upgraded, including 50 kilometres electrified, 119 kilometres of slow signals (speed restrictions) will be removed and 490 kilometres of track will be brought under state-of-the-art centralised traffic management.

Fleet development through rental, refurbishment and new vehicles

The vehicle fleet would be renewed in three ways: by purchasing new vehicles, by leasing used vehicles and by the targeted maintenance and early return of vehicles temporarily withdrawn from service. The refurbishment of 100 trains has already started.