HUNGARIAN State Railways (MÁV) has issued two major tenders to procure 42 suburban EMUs for Budapest’s HÉV network and at least 35 new double-deck EMUs for long-distance passenger services, transport minister, Dávid Vitézy, has announced.
The planned procurement is linked to the renewed availability of up to €16.4bn in European Union (EU) funding for Hungary following the election of prime minister, Péter Magyar, in May and improving relations with the EU.
The suburban EMUs would replace ageing fleets used on lines H5, H6 and H7 while the long-distance trains will replace around 200 older coaches used on the country’s main inter-city corridors, including Budapest - Debrecen - Nyíregyháza - Miskolc, Budapest - Szeged, and Budapest - Pécs. These coaches would be redeployed on regional routes.
Delivery of the new trains is anticipated from 2029.
Around 30% of MÁV’s fleet was out of commission at the end of April, according to a report published at the end of May, including 101 inter-city coaches. Many coaches are out of use due to a lack of funding for overhauls and also because fleet maintenance activities were paused for several months at Dunakeszi works after the previous owner entered bankruptcy.
The facility is now back in the hands of MÁV Passenger and it hopes to return 10 coaches to service this summer. In addition, MÁV Passenger is leasing 10 IC carriages from Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) to support delivery of the summer timetable. The previous government also ordered 10 coaches from domestic manufacturer Magyar Vagon in March.
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