Hungary-Serbia by train, before Orbán's section of the Chinese built line opens

In the Newsletter this week
Hungary-Serbia by train, before Orbán's section of the Chinese built line opens
Bullshit Meter this week: Berlin to build a maglev to Tegel
Good week: Cuneo - Breil s/ Roya - Ventimiglia gets some divine intervention
Bad week: Plans to use old Swiss locomotives in Sweden don't work out
Very bad week: European Sleeper's new train misses the summer season
Photo of the week: Locomotives for Tito's blue train
Calendar: GoVolta launch is a fortnight away

This is the sixth edition of my subscriber-only newsletter, sent every Friday at 14:00 CET.

Hungary-Serbia by train, before Orbán's section of the Chinese built line opens

The main article in today's newsletter is a little different from previous editions, in terms of style, more travel diary than analysis piece, and it builds on the topic from newsletter 3 - Chinese investment in Europe's railways.

My trip starts at Kőbánya-Kispest at the edge of Budapest on a March evening.

Men play loud music on their mobiles upstairs in the waiting room, lit with harsh fluorescent tubes. Down at the platforms the corrugated metal roofs hang low over the passengers waiting for their trains southbound, the lighting here the opposite of upstairs - low and diffuse, lending the whole thing an atmosphere somewhere between threatening and melancholy.

The purported bright future for Hungarian railways feels a long way from here. A hulking 1980s Ganz locomotive hauls a train to Debrecen, and while the motive power of my service to Szeged is more modern, the interior - a corridor carriage with padded benches and opening windows - definitely is not.

The mystery here is why Hungary opted to upgrade the Budapest - Kelebia line for its Budapest - Beograd 'high speed' railway, rather than find some way of serving Szeged (Hungary's third largest city) as well. Unlike the line on the Serbian side of the border, the forthcoming Hungarian section will serve nowhere in particular - a point underlined in this recent and fascinating exposé about the whole thing.

I get chatting - in German - to a passenger on board, who's from Szeged, and I ask her about the Chinese line. "We in Szeged don't vote for them" she says with some vehemence, meaning Orbán, and frustrated her town will see little benefit.

After an all too short night in a B&B in Szeged, I'm onto the next train - the only way currently by rail from Hungary to Serbia. Russian built diesel multiple units ply this route to Subotica via the Röszke - Horgoš border crossing half a dozen times a day. Why diesel is used, given the track is electrified, is a mystery. The train is creaky and worn, and the forty minutes foreseen for border controls far too generous given the few passengers on the 05:23 departure.

Not much is going on at Subotica when I arrive there. The platforms are at least open now, but the renovated station building, impeccable outside, is still closed off to passengers, and the ticket office is a container outside.

After a quick bike ride through town (Subotica is an art nouveau gem), it's back to the station and my SOKO premium Srbija Voz service to Beograd Centar is at the platform waiting. It's remarkable how normal all of this feels - it's like a regular InterCity train in any other central European country. No check ins, no superfluous staff. Just walk to the platform and depart.

The experience on board is what you would expect from a modern Stadler built EMU - everything is orderly and well designed. The only problem is when the train gets going up to its 200km/h maximum speed it vibrates nastily, considerably more than similar trains at similar speeds in Austria for example.

After three quarters of an hour the train slows through Novi Sad, the station still not open after the November 2024 canopy collapse that killed 16 people, the modern platform roofs designed with the undulations to mirror the original 1964 hall. For now the Novi Sad - Beograd commuters have to use Petrovaradin station instead, and many of them do - the train suddenly fills.

The good news here, obviously, is build it and they will come. This train from Novi Sad to Beograd is better than any other way to make the trip, although I still have this nagging nervousness this might be a false dawn given the deficiencies found in the construction of the section approaching Beograd.

75 minutes after departing Subotica we reach the edge of Beograd, the modern SOKO overtaking graffiti-covered 1980s commuter trains. How many of the passengers in my train ever take those services as well I wonder?

After Novi Beograd, the train crosses the Sava and ducks down into the hulk of Beograd Centar, the Tito era plan to create a new station for the capital, and still rather incomplete five decades since construction began. At least today there is a building on top of the socialist era concrete slab above the platforms.

In six weeks I need to repeat this trip, returning to Beograd for a further work event, and by then the Hungarian section of the Budapest - Beograd corridor might be complete, and there could even be through trains, possibly even all the way from Wien.

So there you have it. Subotica - Beograd is the best train in the Balkans by a huge distance. But major question marks hang over how this line was built, the future of Novi Sad station, and why Hungary built as it did and why it did not connect its third city.

Bullshit Meter: Berlin to build a maglev to Tegel

At the moment the Land administration of Berlin is CDU (Christian Democrat) - SPD (Social Democrat), and both the mayor and the Senator for Transport are pro-car, anti-tram Christian Democrats.

That means any idea to avoid building tram lines, and anything that can be built without looking like they are remotely anti car drivers, is considered.

Including connecting the new urban development area at the former Tegel Airport with a maglev train, rather than with a tram line. It's being pushed strongly by Bögl, the company that builds these urban maglev systems.

Is it a good idea? No, a tram makes more sense.
Will it happen? Also likely no, because there's an election in Berlin in September 2026, and that might well be the end of the current coalition.

All previous Bullshit Meter posts can be found here.

Good week: Cuneo - Breil s/ Roya - Ventimiglia gets some divine intervention

Breil s/ Roya (OpenRailwayMap) is a French railway station, with two lines to Italy (north to Cuneo, south to Ventimiglia), and one line to the rest of France (south west to Nice). It's a charming little place, with a pleasant station too:

The only problem was the last time I was there this was hanging in the station ticket office:

I am reliably informed that the sign is no longer there, not because the cross border ticketing absurdities have been resolved, but because the ticket office at Breil has closed for good.

But temporarily there is hope! On the weekend of 28th March the pope is in Monaco, and Trenitalia is offering extra trains from Cuneo via Ventimiglia for the occasion. Maybe some divine intervention can help heal France-Italy rifts, and solve the ticketing issues too?

News originally from Ferrovie.

Bad week: Plans to use old Swiss locomotives in Sweden don't work out

As reported by Järnvägar, efforts to give a new life to Swedish Re 620 locomotives in Sweden have come to nothing. The sole locomotive to be transported to Sweden will be scrapped, and Nordic ReFinance - the company trying to re-purpose these more than 45 year old locomotives - has decided against any further purchase, opting to buy some much more modern TRAXX locomotives instead.

Very bad week: European Sleeper's new night train misses the summer season

A few months ago there was a lot of fanfare about European Sleeper's new night train to Italy. 2026, from Amsterdam and Bruxelles to Milano sounded appealing. Now we know it will be Bruxelles only, and the start has been delayed until September - missing the peak summer season. Running new night train services is no easy feat!

Photo of the week: Locomotives for Tito's blue train

Each week I am going to include a photo from my archive in the newsletter. These are going to be places that remind me of the joy of this railway work, or are simply good picture or beautiful places. But each time there will be a reason.

As I am going to be in the Balkans a lot this spring, a pic from a 2024 trip to Beograd. The original locomotive's from Tito's Blue Train, parked up and rusting here.

Calendar: Launch of GoVolta's new low cost service Amsterdam-Berlin

In just a fortnight - 20th March - the inaugural GoVolta low cost Amsterdam-Berlin service is due to start. I am a bit sceptical of their kind of Ryanair-train model (paying a premium to even sit next to your travel companion is a bit off I think, for example). Anyway, if a €21 trip on an old Belgian carriage from Netherlands to Germany appeals to you, their website is here.

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Photo Rights

All photos in this edition are taken by Jon Worth. Bullshit Meter images always have photo rights listed directly on the image.