Budapest’s Keleti Railway Station is once again receiving and dispatching trains after a month-long closure for renovations. According to MÁV Group CEO Zsolt Hegyi, traffic is being restored in stages. On Sunday afternoon, services to Eger, Gyöngyös, and suburban routes were the first to return, with long-distance trains to follow. Full operations are scheduled to resume on Monday morning.
The reopening was delayed due to technical adjustments needed when reconnecting the station to the power supply. Some track switches required resetting, which caused disruptions to the safety systems. Hegyi explained that the company had prepared for such a scenario, and the National Emergency Center immediately implemented a temporary traffic plan to ensure passengers could still reach their destinations.
By early Sunday afternoon, the necessary adjustments were completed. The first train arrived at Keleti, and at 12:15 the first departure, a Z60 service to Szolnok, left the station. Until all services are fully restored, replacement buses and extra trains will continue to support affected lines. Passengers are being provided with detailed updates via MÁVINFORM platforms.
Hegyi confirmed that all planned renovation work was completed on schedule by late Saturday night. However, during the reconnection process in the early hours of Sunday, unexpected faults emerged due to the station having been without electricity for a month. These issues prevented trains from entering the station in the morning.
He described it as unacceptable that the fault was discovered only hours before the planned reopening but emphasized that the priority was to ensure smooth travel for passengers. ‘Technical problems can always occur, but we cannot allow travel on Sunday to collapse into chaos. Everyone at MÁV has one task today: to get passengers to their destinations despite the altered traffic conditions,’ he wrote.
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