- The former Secretary of State for Transport also mentioned that after centralising procurement at MÁV, Hungary’s state railway company, the process slowed down so much that many InterCity carriages and more technologically advanced trains are standing idle as even the most basic parts can’t be supplied on time. Vitézy also explained that tens of billions of forints have disappeared from the railway maintenance budget due to the halted projects and the introduction of county passes.
- The Ministry of Construction and Transport, along with MÁV, denied halting the EU project aimed at modernising the switches around Keleti station, and they also rejected the claim that significant cost-related changes are reducing the maintenance budget. In contrast, János Lázár wrote that due to “sanction-related inflation,” the “rescheduled” developments wouldn’t have been completed by the weekend anyway.
- Transport on many railway lines is hindered by slow-down signs, which, according to civil organisation Transport Club (Közlekedési Klub), are sometimes unnecessary.
- Freight traffic has already been stopped on the main line connecting the three western-Hungarian county seats with the capital, and daily unannounced delays of 20–40 minutes are common due to the poor state of the tracks.
A so-called “English switch” played a central role in the train accident near Keleti station in late August. As reported, the Claudiopolis InterCity bound for Budapest derailed on the section of track leading to the main station, paralysing all traffic there.
A day after the incident, MÁV executives led by recently dismissed CEO Zoltán Pafféri, explained the situation on-site. Réka Németh, Deputy CEO for Track Operations and Investments, stated that initial inspections indicated that a partially broken rail switch had played a role in the accident. However, she added that it was not yet known whether this was the cause or a result of the incident. Németh also mentioned that every switch would undergo immediate special inspection, and the police would also conduct an investigation. Németh noted that the switch in question was last inspected on July 30 — these checks are required monthly — and there had been no issues at that time. She also dismissed the idea that the age of the switch could have contributed to the events.
According to 24.hu’s information, photos of the broken switch had been circulating within railway insider circles. Based on these images, some suggest that one of the screws may have been missing for a long time, and the maintenance team couldn’t inspect the multitude of similar switches in the area thoroughly enough to discover the defect.
Dávid Vitézy, Budapest’s former mayoral candidate and former Secretary of State for Transport, quickly identified who he believes was responsible for the lack of track renovations in the area. Shortly after the accident, he published two Facebook posts explaining that during his tenure, his team had prepared an EU grant proposal to rebuild and develop the “terribly run-down rail network belonging to Rákos and Upper Kőbánya stations, which included long-needed rail capacity expansions and a new station at Élessarok.”
Following the Budapest Agglomeration Railway Strategy and the government’s decision, we began planning the renovation of the most critical track sections leading up to Keleti Station in 2021, while I was still at the Budapest Development Centre. The largest part of this project was the reconstruction of Upper Kőbánya and Rákos stations. But the investments would also have included the construction of the missing third track up to Rákosliget, and, perhaps most importantly, the optimisation of the Keleti track network and, at MÁV’s request, the replacement of track switches in the poorest condition.
– wrote Dávid Vitézy, who emphasised to our paper that Minister for Construction and Transport János Lázár, now also tasked with leading MÁV, had stopped all railway projects in Budapest, including those aimed at revitalising the surroundings of Keleti and Nyugati stations.
Vitézy reminded that he had already warned about this in a post from last December, once again blaming Lázár for scrapping the “half-finished plans produced by the BFK (Budapest Development Centre) and even returning the already secured EU funds, lest some development would come to Budapest”. The day following his initial post, Vitézy shared more details about the project, which was halted in the fall of 2022. According to him, a memo was prepared for the minister outlining the risks of the decision. Lázár scribbled on it, signed every page, and essentially stopped everything. The table, memorable for its “NO! NEVER!” labels, was obtained and published by Telex.
Vitézy remarked that everything happened exactly as the railway engineers had warned Lázár at the time: “If the project is immediately shut down, the preparatory work will stop at the review and approval planning stage, final plans will not be completed, no regulatory approval processes will take place,” and the already secured EU funds would be lost.
A public back-and-forth ensued between Vitézy and Lázár. The minister recently attacked the former Secretary of State for Transport multiple times, even claiming that Vitézy had mental health problems. In response, Vitézy suggested the minister should personally experience what it’s like for passengers stranded due to a rail break.
What is a fact, however:
and he has put these changes into highest gear in recent weeks. By September, Lázár had dismissed MÁV CEO Zoltán Pafféri, and also announced plans to merge MÁV with Volán, the company responsible for bus transportation, into a single conglomerate.
Lázár also restructured the group’s procurement process. As 24.hu reported last year, by the end of 2023, MÁV’s procurement and inventory management were centralised at MÁV Service Center Plc. (MÁV SZK) within a single month. The independent decision-making powers of various entities, including MÁV Plc. (with its 57,000 employees), MÁV Start (responsible for passenger transport), Volánbusz, and Magyar Közút Nonprofit Plc. were stripped away. Now, for everything from locomotive parts to tires and fuel, orders must be placed through MÁV SZK.
Speaking to 24.hu, Dávid Vitézy suggested that Lázár had been acting as if he were MÁV’s CEO since becoming minister. Vitézy pointed to the centralisation of company management, constant changes in leadership, and the removal of procurement decision-making powers, indicating them as signs that Lázár has taken full control of MÁV. In Vitézy’s view, the current string of problems indicates that the rail transport system is collapsing before our eyes. The former Secretary of State under the Orbán government also said that, based on his information,
Notably, the InterCity train that derailed on Sunday was operating with passenger cars that were over 50 years old and lacked air conditioning.
Sources indicate that recent ministerial decisions have consistently come at the expense of maintenance. One management employee cited an example where the minister awarded over 33,000 manual labourers within the MÁV group a one-time net payment of 200,000 forints on SZÉP card (usable for hospitality, leisure and cultural activities) as a thank-you for ‘keeping the country moving’ despite the heat and “decrepit machinery.” However, according to sources, no additional funding was provided to cover the 6-7 billion forint cost of this decision, which ultimately also reduced the maintenance budget.
Vitézy Dávid claimed that while he had no information about employee bonuses, he was certain that billions had disappeared from the railway maintenance budget due to halted projects and the introduction of regional passes.
Lázár is issuing practically every order without appropriate financial cover – Vitézy claimed.
We have also inquired at the Ministry of Construction and Transport. They replied:
It’s false information that the EU project aimed at the renovation of railway switches has been cancelled.
MÁV’s press office also stated they had no information about any cancelled EU projects involving Keleti Station.
Furthermore, the Ministry also denied that the large-scale cost-side restructuring decisions had reduced the maintenance budget, stating: “The Ministry of Construction and Transport provides all necessary resources for MÁV’s maintenance tasks.”
The information is false that the ‘heat bonus’ provided to the employees who performed well in the extreme heat – which has significantly strained people, infrastructure, and vehicles in recent weeks – was at the expense of MÁV’s maintenance capabilities
– the Ministry of Construction and Transport (ÉKM) stated in response to our inquiry.
Breaking a short silence, Lázár himself replied to the allegations with a not-so-ambitious post on Facebook titled Keleti Railway Station is Operational. After the lines announcing the reopening of the track and thanking the railway workers for their work and the passengers for their patience, the minister once again criticised Vitézy, saying, “Hungary’s most Facebook-active expert, who could have achieved lifelong success with the political support of Fidesz, now incites against MÁV with distortions that amount to betrayal. As a transportation expert, he continuously betrays his former colleagues, the railway workers, those who actually keep the country moving. The developments he refers to, and which we had to reschedule due to sanctions-induced inflation, would not have been realized by this weekend in any case. […] MÁV’s tracks and trains are not the way they are because of Vitézy’s absence or my tenure as minister, but because of the negligence of the past 30 years” – Lázár concluded, thus not denying the postponement of developments, but talking about rescheduling instead of cancellation.
In recent weeks, not only Vitézy but also the Hungarian Transport Club has taken a stand against the events that had taken place within MÁV. Instead of focusing on the main railway lines, they examined the maintenance of smaller, rural sections with the help of experts. Then, in an open letter to János Lázár, they claimed that the railway company is increasing travel times in certain areas with dubious slow-down signs to make the railway unworkable and push people towards buses. According to the association, contrary to MÁV’s claims, billion-forint investments are not necessary. For example, on line 14 between Pápa and Csorna, they could significantly reduce travel times simply by properly handling daily operational tasks.
MÁV responded by saying that “the conclusions published by the self-proclaimed expert are either entirely false, as the investigation on which they are based never took place, or they are incorrect because they were made without real access, relying solely on partial information.”
“Instead of criticising the forensic expert we hired, MÁV’s track maintenance should take a closer look at its own operations in terms of expertise and work ethic. At MÁV, it is simultaneously true that some branch lines are being ruined by excessive speed restrictions due to non-existent track defects, while on the country’s most important main lines, serious conditions that have been ticking like time bombs for a long time are tolerated. Track maintenance is esentially unmanaged on the national level; the speed and condition of the tracks depend entirely on the attitude of local staff” – said Márton Feld, a member of the club’s board, in an interview with our paper.
