A nightmare on the Debrecen train in the middle of nowhere: it was 45 degrees in the carriage
THE From Nyugati railway station started on time on Sunday evening on the Nyírség IC Szolnok-Debrecen-Nyíregyháza route, but the three-hour, air-conditioned, comfortable journey quickly turned into a nightmare. The train suddenly stopped, but no one, not even the conductor, knew what had happened. One of the passengers told Bors the ordeal.
After the train stopped, we sat quietly with the other passengers for a while
– said the young lady, who asked to remain anonymous. – We called the Máv-start line, but we couldn’t get through. Finally, the mother of another traveler, who was able to reach the railway company, called to say that the pantograph had broken, that’s why we stopped and that a diesel locomotive would arrive in half an hour. However, half an hour passed, then an hour, and for an hour and a half we were still sitting on the train, where the heat did not subside. One of the little girls checked it on her watch, it was 45 degrees in the car, and since there was no electricity, there was only the emergency lighting, which created a spooky atmosphere in addition to the increasing uncertainty – recalled the passenger, who said that the promised locomotive finally arrived, which took them to the nearest railway station, barely a kilometer away.
No one understood why they couldn’t get off if the next stop was so close. By the way, the conductors were very cute, they tried to get water, since the train was full of families with children and the elderly.
– We were attached to another locomotive on the state train and we finally arrived in Debrecen with it at 2:50 instead of 21:50, four hours late. For sure, for a long time, MÁV took my interest in taking the train.
Three scandals in one week
For the third time in a week, passengers had to wait for hours on a MÁV train due to a technical fault. For the first time, panic prevailed on the Budapest-Zürich flight, because a broken-down car was pulled out onto the storage line with the passengers inside. In the closed, air-conditioned train, several people – including a little girl – got sick due to the heat, and one of the passengers ended up breaking the window of the car. The next day, the flight from Balatonfüred to Budapest stopped on the open track due to a fault in the locomotive. One of the passengers said that the toilets were closed and they hardly wanted to give them water. There were also children in the overheated car, one of them got so sick that he vomited. We contacted the press department of the MÁV regarding the case, and received the following reply by e-mail.
According to the regulations, in the event that the train is expected to be delayed for more than 120 minutes, the organization of supplying passengers with mineral water began within 30 minutes of the stop. Mineral water is provided by MÁV-START with the involvement of disaster management if necessary. In the specific case, the measures taken can be verified in real practice – that the train does not waste more than 120 minutes on the open track.