📋 Tender Overview
In 2023, 837 million trips were made on the flights of the MÁV-VOLÁN Group. This is 118 million more than in 2022, which shows that rail transport is growing rapidly in popularity in Hungary, despite the challenges of infrastructure and rolling stock. The system of county and country passes played a decisive role in all this, with which we were able to address new passengers, and thanks to which passengers who had previously travelled by public transport could also use the services of the MÁV-VOLÁN Group cheaper, simpler and almost without limitations. Last year, some 181 million journeys were made on domestic and international trains, thus MÁV-START achieved record passenger traffic.
The results of Volánbusz and HÉV also exceeded plans: the former was chosen for a total of 585 million local and intercity journeys, while the latter for 71 million journeys in 2023. Passenger traffic figures have been particularly positive on lines and routes where improvements have been made in recent years.
This clearly shows that there is an increasing openness and demand among Hungarian passengers to choose sustainable public transport instead of driving, as any development – be it steps towards a national tariff community, infrastructural developments or the renewal of the vehicle fleet – can increase the number of passengers, and make intercity bus and rail public transport an attractive alternative for commuters in a short time.
In 2023, the railway company measured almost 178 million journeys on domestic trains and nearly 3.4 million journeys on international trains, thus achieving a new record. The number of domestic trips in the last two years before the pandemic of 138-139 million was also significantly exceeded by the service developments of recent years and the introduction of country and county passes from May. From the point of view of the recovery of passenger traffic, it is also not negligible that MÁV-START put more trains into service than ever before: last year already 1.2 million trains were running, increasing the number of trains by 130 thousand compared to 2019 and by 50 thousand compared to 2022.
Volánbusz local and intercity services were chosen 585 million times last yearVolánbusz local and intercity services were chosen 585 million times last year, which is 65 million trips higher than in 2022. On school days, almost 5.5 thousand buses, 42.5 thousand intercity and 12600 local trains serve passengers. In order to ensure the most modern and environmentally friendly journey, Volánbusz has already put 2500 new vehicles on the market since 2018.
The spread of home office still has the greatest impact on the passenger traffic of suburban railway stations, but compared to 2022, green-painted rail trains were still used for 7 million more journeys, almost 71 million journeys.
The increase in travel has been driven by a number of factors: on the one hand, experience shows an increase in average travel distances in interurban public transport; On the other hand, the affordable county and country passes introduced in May 2023 gave impetus to long-distance travel due to the combined effect of rising fuel prices, but trips in other segments (suburban, long-distance with surcharge, regional) also increased to pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, during and before and after the pandemic, we carried out a number of service developments and offer expansions, which were primarily suburban and long-distance measures and measures improving access to Lake Balaton. We also continued to coordinate schedules to ensure a more comfortable and favorable passage.
There is also an increasing trend in tourist travel. More and more people travel to Hungary's sights and lakeside resting and beach places by choosing public transport. We also help to achieve these with timetable developments. The number of trips between Budapest and Lake Balaton and its region has been increasing for years, and we send a lot of children to the Erzsébet camps next to the lake year after year. In addition, rail travel was also prioritized for long-distance class and group trips. International passenger traffic is also growing in almost all relations, similarly to European trends, many people are increasingly travelling abroad by train to see the city, go on excursions or business trips.
The effect of county and country passes
Users of the new season ticket scheme can use public transport easily, cheaply and without limitations, it is no coincidence that it has become the most popular product in recent decades. From the start of sales at the end of April last year until 30 January this year, our passengers have already purchased about 4.7 million country and county passes. Of this, 35 percent are country leases and 65 percent are county leases; The discounted country pass, costing only HUF 1890, enjoys the greatest popularity, accounting for 29.5 percent of total sales.
Millions use the busiest railway stations
Last year, Budapest headquarters were the most popular destination based on domestic ticket sales data. In 2023, Nyugati railway station finished first, followed by Eastern, Southern and Budapest-Kelenföld stations. Among the provincial cities, Debrecen became the most popular in the 5th place of the list, followed by Gy?r.
The busiest lines of Volánbusz are primarily bus lines running to the capital and county seats from the surrounding settlements serving professional traffic (commuting to work, school) or tourist interest, such as Budapest–Szentendre–Visegrád–Esztergom, Budapest–Halásztelek–Szigethalom, Miskolc–Sajóbábony–Sajószentpéter–Kazincbarcika, Pécs–Mánfa–Komló, Veszprém–Hajmásker–Várpalota, Tatabánya–Tata–Dunaalmás– Esztergom line too.
The passenger traffic of suburban railway stations increased by 7 million, it was used for almost 71 million journeysIn the case of suburban railway stations, the Szentendre (H5) line is in the lead, followed by the Gödöll?, Csömör (H8-H9) lines, Csepel (H7) and Ráckeve (H6).
