As of July 1, Hungarian state railway MÁV will resume international train service to Romania and several other neighboring countries; thus, travelers can purchase tickets in advance, announced the company in a Tuesday statement. Among others, Corona IC will be in service again; this train operates on one of the most frequented routes connecting Budapest to the eastern Transylvanian city of Brassó (Braşov) via Nagyvárad (Oradea) and Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca).
MÁV will also restart as of July 1 the Békéscsaba-Arad train, which connects the cities of Nagyszeben, Temesvár, Brassó and Bucharest to Hungary. IC trains will operate with their coach compartments and sleeping cars; only the dining car will not be open.
At the moment, MÁV operates international trains only to Austria and via Austria to Germany; in fact, these were the only two destinations that remained operational even under emergency rule, with a reduced number of departures.
“While during the expansion of the coronavirus pandemic, the international passenger traffic of MÁV-START (the consumer arm of the MÁV Group) declined by 90 percent, the desire to travel is gradually returning and there is an increased demand for international destinations again,” the communications manager of the company pointed out the in the statement. As most travel restrictions had been lifted in Europe, MÁV started coordinating with its partner companies from neighboring countries to restart international travel to all destinations.
Nevertheless, even though demand for international travel has grown considerably, MÁV still expects a certain decrease in the number of passengers; last year, MÁV-START had 3.1 million international passengers, a 6 percent increase compared to 2018. The company also emphasized that travelers should keep in mind that rules regarding face masks might differ from country to country; for instance, while traveling the Hungarian section of the routes, all passengers must wear a mask or scarf covering the mouth.
MÁV-START will resume train traffic according to its previous timetable to Austria, Germany, and partly to Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia too. The only route that cannot currently be restored is that to the Czech Republic through Slovakia, as the train track on the border with Slovakia was damaged during recent torrential rains and has to be repaired.
Title image: The IC train connecting Brassó with Budapest will also be operational as of July 1
