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4 I Companies & Markets bne November 2023
OBB warned its Hungarian peer MAV to address schedule issues as it consistently failed to meet the timetable on the hourly international trains from Budapest to Western Europe. / bne IntelliNews
Orban can't even make the trains run on time
Tamas Csonka in Budapest
Austrian state railway company OBB has cut Hungary off from direct services to Western Europe due to regular delays on the Budapest-Vienna line, a further blow to the Ministry of Transport, which is overburdened by maintenance work on main railway lines.
The OBB warned its Hungarian peer MAV to address schedule issues as it had failed to meet the timetable on the hourly international trains from Budapest to Western Europe.
From October 2, railjets departing from Budapest and bound to Linz, Salzburg and Munich will stop in Vienna, which means that Hungarians travelling further need to change trains in the Austrian capital. Railjet trains to Hungary will continue to run on their full routes, according to the statement.
Renovation work on a 29km section of the Budapest-Vienna line, which passes through central Hungary, commenced
in mid-September and is projected to continue until mid-December. The deteriorated condition of the track, which is one of the busiest in Hungary, had led to the imposition of speed limits of 100 km/h. These have led
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to 20-30-minute delays, which increased further with the closure of one track, creating a bottleneck.
MAV argued that meeting OBB's requests would have disproportionately impacted domestic transportation. Replacement buses on the section ongoing reconstruction were put into use, but these did not affect international travel, it added.
According to pundits, MAV has breached EU guidelines pertaining to track renewal.
The maintenance work began overnight; however, according to EU directives, track maintenance that affects more than 30% of traffic and last longer than 7 days must be announced two years in advance. The regulation also compels MAV to consult freight forwarders and its peers in advance.
MAV has contracts with 53 freight companies, so the Czech and Austrian railway companies were right to expect to
be informed of the limited use of the track for a prolonged period.