National Program to Renew Railway Stations and Boost Regional Growth

Budapest Keleti railway station.

Keeping them in public ownership, but also involving external funding for improvements so that they can be developed in more places, faster, and with greater results – this is the essence of the national station renewal program, for which the Ministry of Construction and Transport and the MÁV Group are launching a tender.

The tender invites applications from investors and property developers, who in return for a limited period of commercial use of part of the property, are willing to undertake the regeneration of the station building and its surroundings. The scheme will thus serve to improve public transport, boost the local economy, and develop the local area, while the properties to be developed will remain under public ownership, points out Magyar Nemzet.

At the national level, the project includes the possibility of tendering for seven, large priority stations with international traffic.

Four of these are located in the capital (Keleti, Nyugati, Déli, and Kelenföld railway stations) and three in the countryside (Győr, Debrecen, and Szeged).

At the regional level, the program offers the possibility of using stations that play a key role in the transport of a region, but which are smaller than the previous ones but have a significant traffic volume. In the first round, applications can be submitted for stations in Alsógöd, Dunakeszi-Gyártelep, Felsőgöd, Gödöllő, Pécel, Siófok, Székesfehérvár, Sződ-Sződliget, and Vác.

Last but not least, at the third, local level of the program, any small and medium-sized station building in the country can be used by any company that undertakes to meet the conditions of the application,

in particular to fully respect the railway transport aspects and to improve passenger comfort.

While large stations of national importance will be made available through MÁV project companies, regional and local stations will be made available through long-term leases. When asked about the new project, the MÁV Group stressed that “the program will simultaneously address three key aspects: it will increase passenger comfort, the range and quality of services available to a broad public, offer a fair return to the investor and, above all, it will respect the primacy of railway business considerations. No development must be at the expense of the railways. The objective is to renew and modernize stations in a meaningful way, and the involvement of external resources is only a means to this end.”

According to the MÁV Group, the plan is expected to result in the emergence of high-quality shops in the largest domestic stations.

Via Magyar Nemzet; Featured image via Facebook/MÁV