János Lázár, the minister of construction and transport, said the Construction and Transport Ministry will submit a 10-year railway development program to the government.
Speaking on a radio program on Thursday, the minister said the aim is to upgrade the ageing track network and the rolling stock step by step, focusing on important tasks. This requires investments worth up to 6,000 billion forints (EUR 15.4bn), which could be covered from European Union funds or by borrowing on money markets, Lázár said. Lázár noted that the number of passengers dropped significantly during the pandemic, but demand for public transport increased considerably in the past six months. In 2022, the government decided to concentrate resources on rail transport around the capital, and this requires a workforce. In addition to ensuring accident-free traffic, the reallocation of human resources is partly the reason why rail traffic has been suspended on ten branch lines from August, he said.