Index – Domestic – Is it worth spending one billion euros on something that doesn’t meet the exact purpose for which it would be built?
The construction of the Southern Circuit is at least as cardinal an issue for rail freight as it is for passenger traffic in the agglomeration-capital connection, but the former is hardly mentioned. The professional approach to freight transport does not particularly frustrate the electorate, but those involved in commuting do.
Perhaps this is why it is still the case today that freight trains are forced to share passenger traffic on the dual-track trans-European trans-European freight corridor in southern Budapest (thus curbing capacity-based fixed-track freight traffic) and are only thinking about its development in terms of passenger traffic.
However, the two members of the Association of Citizens on the Track for a Living Environment (POPÉK) do not see the additional impact of freight transport on the population, but it also strongly emphasizes that the vast majority of freight trains have no earnings within the borders of Budapest. This is not the only objection of the civilians of Újbuda declaring to the Index against the Budapest Agglomeration Railway Strategy, which was recently adopted by a government decision.
Róbert Homolya, CEO of MÁV, recently had one in an interview he talked about a thirty to fifty percent increase in domestic sales in the freight transport sector. The Association of Hungarian Logistics Service Centers (MLSZKSZ) also drew attention to the fact that if we want a competitive track for freight transport, in addition to the construction of the Southern Roundabout
it would be very reasonable to return to the issue of building a railway line called V0, the feasibility study of which was prepared by the Master Plan in 2013. According to the document, the designers did not envision the East-West connection to be further south, not in Budapest.
This previous plan II. According to POPÉK, the solution can be the number of route variants. The railway line would cross the Cegléd – Dunaújváros – Székesfehérvár line north of Dunaújváros (crossing the Danube as well), mainly along family trails. IV then proposed by the Master Plan. (Cegléd – Ercsi – Bicske) even a government railway strategy was born.
“The main problem for civilians is that the construction of the Southern Roundabout did not see a real increase in cross-section, even if the Bartók Béla overpass was extended to four tracks,” Tamás Faragó, a member of the POPÉK railway group, told Index.
This is because during the development, the nodes (interchange areas) remain bottlenecks. There is also a lack of digital (central) traffic management, the trajectory available for two-way traffic would become asymmetric, the overtaking of two trains with different stops would not be possible everywhere, and the remaining freight trains would deprive passenger capacity of significant capacity.
It is definitely worth developing, because the knowledge track capacities cannot be used on the six tracks coming to Kelenföld, from where four go out to the north, but two of them go to the South, which is the main railway station, so there is no more. The other two are just heading east to Ferencváros. It’s just not the only way to solve cross-sectional problems where they currently arise. With the comprehensive development of the network, the offer of the individual railway sectors can be expanded more economically by establishing connections that do not exist today.
F explainedTamás Aragó.
Now, 100 percent of the through freight traffic passes through the Danube in Budapest, on the Southern Connector next to the Rákóczi Bridge (the extension of which is the interest of Lőrinc Mészáros, V-Híd Zrt.). won For HUF 338 billion).
It is a historical feature that on the bridges on the Danube the II. the site of the third track has been available since post-World War II reconstruction. However, no substructure is available for the extension of the embankment leading from here to Kelenföld and the railway bridges over Újbuda boulevards. This will be extended to three tracks as part of the Southern Roundabout project. According to the BFK’s communication, it is important to ensure better and more environmentally friendly passenger traffic in the agglomeration and to make rail travel more important than a car.
BFK intends to build the necessary substructure from the designated parade area on the Hamzsabégi promenade, for which V-Híd Zrt. Submitted an offer of HUF 338 billion.
There is little talk, however, that this high amount is the cost of keeping freight traffic within the city.
Referring to previous newspaper articles, POPÉK estimates that the barely 7-kilometer section between Kelenföld and Népliget will cost more than HUF 62 billion per kilometer, precisely due to the need for a retaining wall and glass noise protection wall for noisy freight traffic, then (said to be overpriced) –The section of the Belgrade line built outside the city is only 3-4 billion.
That is why the association recommended a public interest request for data on the cost-benefit calculations of the railway project to the Budapest Development Center, from where they are directed to Nemzeti Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő Zrt. According to civilians, the development of the Southern Main Railway will preserve the possibility of a single main railway crossing on the Danube.
According to international experience, if the freight traffic were diverted to the south by the implementation of the V0 project, in addition to digital traffic management, it would be possible to transport 16 pairs of trains per hour on the double-track track. In this case, all 16 pairs of trains would be passenger passengers, as opposed to the expansion of three pairs of rails under BAVS, which would only accommodate 11 passenger passengers (suburban + long-distance) per hour due to the 5 freight trains operating here. (For more information on freight avoidance, including a reference to a previous Index article, civilians have compiled it.)
Let the inhabitants of Újbuda be prepared in spirit
6,000 people live on the Hamsabég road section of the Southern Roundabout. The XI itself. The 1.5-kilometer trail to be built next to the district houses is located in a railway area, but the parade area required to build a high-rise concrete and glass wall is no longer.
1000 f will be cut out along the promenade due to work. These would be replaced as promised. However, the investor has no legal obligation to replace those on the railway embankment, so it is only due to the goodwill of the developers that they have promised to do the same. However, you will not be able to do this in the paved area. This would certainly reduce the green space of Újbuda.
According to Péter Tóth, a member of the board of POPÉK, the local patriot of Újbuda, the huge concrete substructures that increase the summer heat and the felling of the trees that prevent the formation of heat islands are needed so that the container trains can get free. This, in turn, worsens the living conditions of the people living in Budapest.
The costs are also increased by the fact that as part of the project, nearby residents were promised a window replacement as part of the development, after the environmental impact study showed that the sound insulation (approximately 45,000 square meters) would not be sufficient if the Budapest-Belgrade line was extended. higher throughput than at present.
“However, the windows opening onto the side streets affected by noise pollution are not planned to be replaced, and no compensation is provided for the residents, citing the hectic nature of the real estate market,” adds Péter Sándor Tóth.
The designers of the Southern Roundabout believed that the implementation of the project would bring a 20 percent increase in rail freight traffic to everyday life in Budapest. However, in addition to the President and CEO of MÁV, the Secretary General of the MLSZKSZ expects more than that, in addition to the development of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line, the second phase of the Mercedes plant in Kecskemét, the BMW plant in Debrecen and the Fényeslitk EWG Combined Terminal due to its attractive effect on traffic. If the growth is 30 or even 50 percent, the project owners of the Southern Roundabout will say that the construction of the V0 railway bypass will also be inevitable.
In order to decentralize the railway network, the POPs would like to see, among other things, a law that states:
- After 31 December 2027, with the exception of destination freight traffic, rail freight transport is prohibited in Budapest;
- the government guarantees that it will put into operation the freight railway line bypassing Budapest and its suburbs by 2026;
- as early as this year, from 1 January, an additional track access charge will be paid by carriers that are old-style and do not yet carry wagons;
- After the commissioning of the bypass railway section, the non-noise-suppressed railway car cannot be used in Budapest.
The V0 railway bypass costs have already been achieved at the expense of the Southern Roundabout. A V0 II. the route plan can also be scheduled. In this way, suburban passengers would already be able to enjoy the benefits of the “metro-like” passenger train offer during the peak hours of the Danube.
“An 850-meter-long, single-track bridge to be built for the Ferencváros director, which will allow passenger traffic to pass through the freight director’s entrance, should be avoided, and therefore 60 billion. This could have been saved by diverting freight traffic, ”said Tamás Faragó.
However, neither the construction of this bridging bridge nor the Népliget stop is included in the 338 billion budget of the Southern Circuit Development tender won by V-Híd Zrt. Construction work on the project is scheduled to begin in 2023.
(Cover image: The Rákóczi Bridge and the rebuilt southern connecting railway bridge were photographed from the Mol’s headquarters under construction on August 3, 2021. Photo: Zoltán Máthé / MTI)