Minister says they will declare the right to transport a fundamental right of citizens

Minister of Construction and Transport János Lázár announced a five-point transport action plan on Friday. It includes making transport a citizen's right, plans to borrow 1 billion euros from the EU to build railways, purchase scrapped Western vehicles, replace the management of the Hungarian State Railways, and renovate a few railway stations.

At his Transport Info press conference, the minister said that the focus is on two groups: the passengers and the workers. "I have two goals: the passenger should get good service and the workers who work for us and with us should be motivated," he said. The minister said that 10 million county and country passes have been sold so far, expected to result in 800 million trips in 2024, up from 600 million in 2023. 4.5 million Hungarians have benefited from this new system, although he was "attacked even from within the ruling party Fidesz for agreeing with opposition Mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony before the local elections".

He thanked the passengers for their patience and for "choosing them despite the difficulties". He promised they would be rewarded.

He then announced that the government had held several discussions on transport proposals and concluded that a five-point transport action plan would be put forward.

1. Lázár will present a new passenger transport law to the Parliament, which will deal with the rights of Hungarians in transport: he wants to declare the right to transport a fundamental civil right for all Hungarian citizens and residents. It is necessary to clarify "what they are entitled to" so that there are no more closures of lines or closures of municipalities. According to Lázár, part of this civil right should be that every Hungarian should be able to travel back and forth between their places of residence and the district seat three times a day without having to change trains and twice between the district seat and the county seat.

2. They will start building railways. There are 8,000 kilometres of railways left in Hungary after the Treaty of Trianon, 6,500 of which are in use, and 1,200 kilometres of which have been renovated in the last 14 years, he said. More than 50 per cent of this is speed-limited because the tracks are in bad condition. Lázár will apply to the European Investment Bank for a €1 billion loan (for 30 years), to which the government will also contribute €1 billion. In terms of money, this is about HUF 880 billion. 500 kilometres of new railways are to be built from this, starting in 2025. This money will also be used to renovate tram lines, for example, and to rebuild the Gubacsi bridge. Railway digitalisation will also be included, and transformers will be built on some lines.

3. Vehicle procurement. The average age of the vehicles is 45 years. "There is no vehicle whose condition has not deteriorated significantly in the past years", Lázár said. These are the options, according to the minister: for example, manufacturing vehicles ourselves. This requires international know-how, because it is not that simple, so they "keep trying to acquire" the Spanish company Talgo. Another option is to buy new vehicles, the fastest way to do this is to buy from GYSEV, but the earliest they could arrive would be four years from now. The third option is trying to buy second-hand vehicles, and Lazar is going for that because he thinks he is being "sensible". He thinks that vehicles that are 20 to 30 years old and are now being decommissioned in Western Europe should be purchased. "I have been authorised by the prime minister, he has sent me as a scout to search out" hundreds of such vehicles. He has been authorised by Viktor Orbán to do this for hundreds of millions of euros.

4. Passenger comfort. This will include, for example, a new MÁV app in 2025, and a new passenger information system. Railway stations will be renovated, for example, the Western Railway Station in Budapest and the ones in Debrecen, Győr and Siófok. The minister envisages this not with taxpayers' money, but with real estate investors' money. Small stations will also be renovated, starting in Gyula.

5. To make it all work, a new system is needed. "You cannot put new money into an old system," he said. They are reorganising the Hungarian Railways (MÁV) and its subsidiaries. MÁV Ltd. will be in the middle, with three subsidiaries. One will deal with passenger transport, another with track management, and the third will be responsible for servicing these companies, as a kind of back office. All the other companies will be merged into these three. The Zsolt Hegyi and Gábor Dányi duo will be the new management of MÁV from September, replacing Zoltán Pafféri and Zsolt Steininger. Zsolt Hegyi carried out the tariff reform. He introduced the county and country season tickets and the Budapest season tickets, "he has the innovation skills" that the government needs, according to Lázár.

Is the state of the railways adequate for the country's level of economic development? – Telex asked after the announcements, to which Lázár replied no. So what is preventing enough money from being allocated from the GDP and national wealth generated to sustain a decent rail service? – we asked. The minister replied that "for years, we have been waiting for a clear statement that would show us what the future of this sector should be". Besides, there have been more important tasks, the focus has not been on mass transport over the last ten years, as health and education have taken away resources. Now, Lázár said, the breakthrough was that the tariff reform has shown both the government and the opposition that this is an important issue, that passengers are travelling, so "passengers voted with their feet". He cannot say why previous ministers failed to make a difference, why they were not as "prepared" as he is.

Lázár also said in response to a question from Telex that working in a home office is about one step away from MÁV employees not working at all, and this is no joking matter. According to the minister, taxpayers' money should not be played with and it's the workplace where you can work.

No one should try to take political advantage of the suffering of others, be it patients or passengers, Lázár said about the summer heat. "The country is not prepared for the fact that the weather has changed or will change to such an extent in the future, and people are not prepared either," said Lázár, who said the goal is that when 40 degrees hit in 2025, the 50-year-old trains will not run, and air-conditioned buses will be launched instead. Although there are delays on other days of the year, not just in the heat, "it's quite different".

He said that they count on Hungarian companies, including Lőrinc Mészáros' V-Híd Zrt, to implement the announced transport action plan. He also said that the negotiations with the Chinese had nothing to do with this. They are negotiating with them about a new Budapest railway ring (V0) and the construction of a direct railway line between the Western Railway Station and Budapest airport.

Lázár had already hinted in July that he would make big announcements in August. He said this after the heat of the summer months had completely paralysed rail transport. On one occasion, for example, people who wanted to travel by train were asked to take the bus because the rails were melting.