One-day Motorway Vignettes Could Be Cheaper than Ever Before

Hungary Today 2024.05.08.

Motorists could pay only HUF 1,000 (EUR 2.6) instead of HUF 5,150 (EUR 13.2) for a one-day motorway toll in Hungary. Parliament’s economic committee has already voted in favor of the proposal, and from now on a simple parliamentary majority vote could be needed to save more than HUF 4,000 on a trip, Index reports.

Although opposition party Jobbik has been fighting for a one-day motorway sticker for years, it took the transposition of a European Union directive for the government to introduce this option. Previously, the minimum period of time for which a vignette could be purchased was 10 days, which many considered unfair. The price of a one-day vignette would be HUF 5,150, which the party believes would still impose too high a burden on Hungarian families and therefore considers it unacceptable.

We have therefore submitted a proposal for a decision to set the price of a daily entitlement to use toll roads at a maximum of HUF 1,000 in car and motorcycle categories, thus providing real help to road users,”

the party wrote in a press release.

On Tuesday, the proposal was backed by the Fidesz (ruling party) majority in the parliament’s economic committee, and now it can be put to the plenary session. From now on, it will be up to the parliamentary majority to decide the fate of motorists.

Fact

In 2022, the European Union voted to reform the transport and charging systems, and Member States were given two years to prepare for the new rules and to implement the new vignette system. The reform means that to ensure fair treatment of occasional road users from abroad, it will be possible to buy a vignette for a shorter period of time, up to one day.

In Hungary, the new one-day vignettes were introduced on April 1, 2024. The pass is valid for one calendar day, from 0:00 to 24:00 hours, on the entire toll road network in Hungary. Currently, the price of the one-day vignette costs 9% of the price of the annual national vignette. This year, for most passenger cars (categories D1M and D1) with a maximum of seven passengers, an annual vignette costs HUF 57,260 (EUR 147).

Compared with neighboring countries, the current price of a one-day motorway vignette in Hungary is particularly high. A comparison on autopalyamatrica.hu shows that in the Czech Republic, it costs CZK 200 (HUF 3,110) for cars using conventional fuel, in Austria it costs EUR 8.60 (HUF 3,350), and in Romania EUR 2.5 (HUF 975).

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Via Index, autopalyamatrica.hu; Featured image: Facebook/Nemzeti Útdíjfizetési Szolgáltató Zrt.