The train was traveling at well over 100 km/h immediately before the derailment. It is not yet known whether the section's switch was set to change tracks. If so, that would explain the accident, experts say.Continue reading
The Mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, is initiating the preparation of a new rail freight line bypassing Budapest.
“We have initiated the preparation of a new rail freight line bypassing Budapest with the Government,” Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony announced in a Facebook post.
In order to protect the quality of life of the people of Budapest living along the Southern Circular Railway, the General Assembly of Budapest, at the suggestion of Dr. Imre László, Mayor of Újbuda, is initiating the preparation of the so-called V0 railway line, bypassing Budapest. The aim is to move international transit freight traffic, which is extremely noisy, out of the city,”
Karácsony wrote.
The V0 rail ring is a decades-old project and, according to HVG, could be a solution for one of the biggest problems in rail freight transport. Currently, Budapest is the bottleneck of the network, which was also “helped” by the Trianon Peace Treaty, and crossing the country from east to west is virtually impossible without passing through the capital, especially the Southern Interconnecting Railway Bridge. In the city, trains have to slow down and share tracks with passenger trains; essentially, freight trains can only be squeezed in during holes in their fixed timetables.
Back in February, Mandiner reported that at the meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Moscow, the Russian president hinted that Russia was ready to help Hungary build a $2 billion (EUR 2 million) railway line bypassing Budapest from the south.
Karácsony also added in the post that “The Assembly also called on the government to review whether the extension of the capacity of the railway line linking Ferencváros and Kelenföld, i.e. the Southern Ring Railway, is still justified and proportionate to the government’s objectives in a densely populated urban area.”
Featured image: illustration via Zoltán Balogh/MTI