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No Russian-produced spare parts for the cars of Budapest’s Metro line 3 have been delivered in the last 30 days, and no specialists from the manufacturer Metrowagonmash (MWM) have arrived in Budapest from Russia. Moreover, it is uncertain whether the Russian factory, which also makes military equipment, is currently even producing parts for the trains, daily Népszava reports.
This article was originally posted on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute.
According to the Budapest transport company BKV, the war is not affecting the maintenance of the trains for the time being, but the current stock is sufficient for only a few months at most, according to leftist daily Népszava. A 2020 report of independent experts identified 18 serial defects in the rather inferior Russian vehicles, and concluded that Russian trains are particularly high-maintenance compared to newer ones.
In addition to rails and metro cars, MWM also manufactures high-speed crawler chassis for combat vehicles, among other products. Its new development, a special wheeled chassis with a hull, was presented last year at the Army2020 International Military Technology Forum.
Currently, parts are being removed from unused metro cars until further notice. Replacing parts by removing the necessary components from cars that are not in use due to track renovations is still possible, but these sources are limited. The plan is to hand over the entire line next year, so more wagons will be needed.
The replacement of the heavily rusting floor plates, which had been done under the Russian side’s own guarantee, has also been completely suspended. The question is when all this will lead to the withdrawal of the metro cars.
The metro line, which is more than 17 kilometers long, is the busiest railroad system in Hungary, with an average of more than 500,000 passengers on weekdays. This is more than the total traffic on the national rail network.
Featured photo by Zoltán Balogh/MTI