HUNGARIAN State Railways (MÁV) recently unveiled its financial results for 2012, which reveal that last year the railway achieved its first operating profit in decades.

HUNGARY's National Infrastructure Development Agency (NIF) has issued a tender notice for a contract to equip the Budapest – Lökösháza section of European Corridor IV with ETCS Level 2.

GERMANY's Eurogate Intermodal and ICE Holding, Hungary, acquired all remaining shares in railfreight operator Floyd, one of the first open-access operators to enter the Hungarian market, for an undisclosed sum.

ŠKODA Transportation's newest LRV, the 26T, began testing in Pilsen, Czech Republic, on May 15 ahead of delivery of the first two vehicles to the northern Hungarian city of Miskolc in July.

THE first of 18 CAF Urbos low-floor LRVs ordered by Debrecen public transport operator DKV in 2011 arrived in the Hungarian city on May 22.

GYÖR-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railway (GySEV) has issued tenders for the electrification of the Szombathely-Hegyeshalom line in western Hungary, which the company took over from Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) in 2011.

A unique solar-powered railcar built by the workshops of the Kismaros – Királyrét narrow-gauge line near Budapest has been granted approval to carry passengers in time for the start of the tourist season.

AFTER several years of poor or mixed results, Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) achieved a strong turnaround in 2012 with a return to profitability.

THE European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the First Railway Package does not require member states to have an institutional separation between an infrastructure manager and the incumbent railway operator.

THE Hungarian government has given the go-ahead for a long-discussed project to build a 113km freight line between Tatabánya and Cegléd, by-passing Budapest. This would be the biggest new railway construction in the country since 1912.