mÁV goes full steam ahead MÁV

Since 2010 the Hungarian Railway Company has gone through a dynamic development – its passenger capacities, customer service and economic strength have been greatly enhanced. Now the MÁV group is preparing for the domestic passenger market opening in 2023 by modernising its fleet with its own design of IC+ rail coaches while focusing on passenger comfort. Edina Beale reports.

The primary body of the state-owned Hungarian Railway Company, MÁV group has been playing a significant role in the Hungarian society and economy for one and a half centuries. In 2011 the Hungarian Parliament signed a long-term public utility contract with the MÁV group that enabled the company to maintain a steady operation and provided the opportunity to achieve the goals set in its mid-term strategic plan.

The Hungarian government’s railway strategy has brought success in recent years, with its focus on railway reconstructions, vehicle modernisations and new DMU purchases. According to statistics the number of passengers is growing in Budapest’s suburbs and the focus will remain on the suburbs to improve customer services by operating the modern DMUs and keeping convenient timetables.

By the end of 2017 the MÁV group has managed to reduce its previous 300 billion forint debt stock to 50 billion forint. The Hungarian government has promised to increase the salaries of railway workers by 30 per cent between 2017 and 2019 – in 2017 the Hungarian railway workers received a 13 per cent pay rise, and this year their salaries are expected to increase by an additional 12 per cent. In accordance with the three-year agreement in 2019 a further 5 per cent pay rise is expected.

In addition to its improved performance, MÁV Zrt has achieved considerable success with its reconstruction programmes and has won prestigious awards for its outstanding industrial design in railway architecture. In 2014, the company won the Brunel prize for reconstructing the Budapest-Újszász railway line’s rail stations and in 2017 it received the Pro Architectura prize in the building category for its high quality architectural development activity in railway development projects.

Preparing for market opening

Currently the MÁV group, together with its 30 affiliates, operates most of the public railway network in Hungary, around 7000km of railway line. It manages the country’s most significant railway stations and most train stations too. However, in accordance with the fourth railway package set by the EU, from 2020 and from 2023, EU members must gradually open their domestic railway passenger market. From then on foreign state companies and private firms can compete for domestic contracts with MÁV Zrt.

MÁV-Start Zrt, the passenger transport division of MÁV Group, is aiming to increase its seat capacities by 7.6 per cent by 2025 in the Budapest suburbs. The busiest railway lines, in which trains are expected to carry around 600 passengers in rush hours, will be replaced by large capacity DMUs that will provide a total of 22,800 seats by 2025.

New InterCity family range

In recent years MÁV-Start has been working on a massive project in their Szolnok site to manufacture new generation railway coaches. The new InterCity passenger vehicle family range, named IC+, is designed and developed by the company’s own engineers. The product comprises 53,000 parts and its manufacturing process requires 5500 working hours. The very first product of this new family range, which is suitable for international transportation, will be completed this summer.

Relying on the close cooperation of 250 professionals and engineers and the same number of subcontractors, the company plans to manufacture 20 of these new coaches by the end of 2018 and intends to assemble another 70 IC+ for domestic transportation. Three quarters of these 70 vehicles will be assembled in 2019 and the rest will follow in 2020.

Focus on passenger comfort

The new fleet is expected to attract passengers as IC+ carriages are practical and comfortable, while some are family friendly and wheelchair accessible. Premium cabins will also be available for people who wish to travel in peace and quiet.

Ten of the coaches that will travel abroad are second-class and could travel at 200km/h and ten coaches are accessible by

wheelchairs or have many different room functions, while travelling a maximum speed of 200km/h. The second-class coaches have already been approved by the railway companies of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Switzerland, Poland and Romania, with other permissions due to be authorised soon.

Needless to say, all coaches are also air-conditioned. The energy required to operate laptops and mobile devices is provided by electric and USB connectors and wireless internet access is available. The audio-visual passenger information system on board is operated by a GPS system and provides passengers with up-to-date information about the train’s position while camera surveillance ensures their safety.

Due to the continuous railway line reconstructions in Hungary, many important lines are now suitable for 160km/h speed of travel and therefore domestic transportation will be able to use these new models. As the number of IC+ coaches being manufactured increases, MÁV will gradually extend its IC network in order to involve more and more areas in the high quality railway service. As a result of recent investments it is possible that MÁV-Start will manufacture 40–50 IC+ coaches every year and therefore will start replacing outdated vehicles with these new ones to improve passenger comfort. MÁV-Start intends to continue the serial production of the IC+ coaches as it needs at least 300 new IC+ coaches before the passenger transportation market opens in 2023. n