The Country
Hungary is a fascinating country and having only barely scraped the edges I can’t really comment too much. Getting around is very easy though with trains operating to all corners of the country, regularly, and the Budapest integrated transport system won’t have you standing around anywhere for long.
Train Travel
Magyar Allamvasutak (MAV) operate the national rail service, throughout Hungary; also offering many cross border trains into neighbouring countries. MAV timetables can be downloaded as PDF’s from their site. Maps of the MAV system can be found on their site.
There are also open access operators offering regional services, completely exempt from MAV, such as:
GySev – operating regional services in the Budapest – Szombathely – Sopron areas. GySev timetables are available on their site in PDFs to download alternatively they are also published in the national timetable produced by MAV.
A comprehensive list of both passenger and freight operators in Hungary can be found on the helpful Railfaneurope website’s Hungary page.
Train times and Tickets
Booking tickets for travel within Hungary (on MAV operated trains) can be done on the MAV-START website, or if you only require reservations for either Interrail, Eurail or railway staff passes then this can be done via phone to the DB office in London.
If choosing to use an Interrail pass, either for just within Hungary, or to pass through Hungary, all the relevant details on the passes, including the different types/lengths of validity available, can be found on the InterRail website.
For those travelling from outside Europe then the Eurail Pass is your ticket to Europe, details of which can be found on EU Rails’ website.
Finally travel in Europe can be made a lot simpler by using the very, very, helpful smartphone app courtesy of Eurail. This app is available both online and offline and is always up to date (well it has been for the countries I’ve used it in; including for any planned engineering works); for me it was an essential part of my travel in Europe. This app is linked to the Hafas system, which countries like Germany, Austria & Switzerland use for their train planning online tool. Eurail has done what the individual countries haven’t though and made it available offline.
For the Rail Enthusiast
A comprehensive list of Hungarian Locomotives by their respective railway system can be found on the Railfaneurope website’s Hungary page. This also explains a bit the various operators of the network and how they have amalgamated over the years.
Maps of the MAV system can be found on their site. A detailed map/atlas of the Hungarian Railway System is available from European Railway Atlas.
After a successful trip to Mariupol in 2018, I’d discovered while researching that trip, that there was a lot more to be done diesel-wise in the area bordering the Donetsk region and when I finally got my arse into gear I found all the Summer holiday trains to Berdiansk in the UZ timetable and a Read the Rest…
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I’d planned this trip to coincide with the planned charter that was expected to be an SBB Re6/6 from Luino to Schaffhausen, which would also have linked in nicely with the BLS Heritage Extrazug that was running Burgdorf – Brig – Burgdorf on the same day. As luck didn’t have it, for the second time Read the Rest…
Having only ventured into Ukraine for the first time two years ago, I was beginning to get the bug for the place. It’s a country which in cranking terms is about as real as it gets these days, and there’s no sign of things changing anytime soon. So, this trip was planned to take in Read the Rest…
As has been the case for the previous two years, we were both off at Christmas again this year and so made plans to head out of the UK for it. With there being a rerun, albeit with a difference, of the MAV Nostalgia Christmas Nohab outing from Kelenfold to Tapolca, we tied our plans in with Read the Rest…
A simple trip to Switzerland to basically cover the SBB Cargo Re4/4 turns that had started working in the December 2015 timetable change. As I left it late to book it worked out a lot cheaper to fly out and back to Budapest and do the overnight from Budapest Keleti to Zurich in either direction. Read the Rest…
Having heard via the grapevine, while I was away in India, that MAV Nostalgia were running a charter train on Tuesday 22nd December, featuring all 6 Nohabs that remained in service, a rather impromptu trip to Budapest for Christmas resulted after it actually seemed like a better idea to stay on after the tour as Read the Rest…
This is an extract from a multi-country report to read the full report use the following link: Multi Trip Switzerland – Slovenia – Croatia – Hungary – Germany August 2014 This trip was a week specifically to do Slovenia & Hungary: Having been bowled for doing Slovenia earlier in the year when the storms hit Read the Rest…
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This is an extract from a multi-country report to read the full report use the following link: Multi Trip Germany – Croatia – Hungary – Switzerland – Germany May 2014 This trip was a week roaming Europe: Germany – Croatia – Hungary – Switzerland – Germany Originally this trip was to include Slovenia but due Read the Rest…
As has been the case for the previous two years, we were both off at Christmas again this year and so made plans to head out of the UK for it. With there being a rerun, albeit with a difference, of the MAV Nostalgia Christmas Nohab outing from Kelenfold to Tapolca, we tied our plans in with Read the Rest…
Having heard via the grapevine, while I was away in India, that MAV Nostalgia were running a charter train on Tuesday 22nd December, featuring all 6 Nohabs that remained in service, a rather impromptu trip to Budapest for Christmas resulted after it actually seemed like a better idea to stay on after the tour as opposed to returning Read the Rest…
This is an extract from a multi-country report to read the full report use the following link: Multi Trip (France – Switzerland – Luxembourg – Holland – Czech Republic – Slovakia – Hungary) July 2014 The trip was in two parts, the first bit being solid trains and the second bit being a relaxing week, Read the Rest…