Negotiations on Hungarian-Romanian road and rail development
The aim is to jointly speed up border-crossings, both for freight and passenger traffic.
Dávid Vitézy, minister of state for transport policy at the Ministry of Technology and Industry, held talks with Ionut-Cristian Săvoiu, Romania’s transport secretary, in Budapest.
The Bucharest-Brassó-Arad-Békéscsaba-Szolnok-Budapest line is the most important rail freight route between the two countries, and its role is also important for passenger transport, MTI reports.
In recent years, the second track has been replaced on both the Romanian and the Hungarian side, and the last missing section between Békéscsaba and the Romanian border is currently being built. At the same time, the sections concerned must also be upgraded to meet the other parameters required for EU corridors.
“The problem with the railway line crossing between Biharkeresztes and Oradea is that it is not electrified between Püspökladány and Cluj-Napoca, although electric locomotives are used on the connecting lines in both countries. On the Hungarian side, electrification is scheduled to be completed this year, and in January this year, public procurement in Romania was also launched in three phases,” Vitézy recalled.
The Budapest-Kolozsvár-Bucharest high-speed railway is planned to follow the same route. This is a very long-term project, and preparations are still underway in both countries, with discussions starting to decide on the exact location of the border connection.
They would like to improve the railway connection between Debrecen and Oradea. There are several possible solutions for a rail link between the two cities, and cooperation is also underway in this area, he said.
The motorway network between the two countries is constantly being developed, with good connections on the M43-A1 and M4-A3 motorways on the Hungarian side. Dávid Vitézy stressed that it would be important for Hungary to have a continuation of the northern Transylvanian motorway because it also leads to the Hungarian-inhabited areas. The A1 has been bypassed so that Cluj-Napoca and Târgu Mureș can now be reached by motorway.
The M49 motorway will be built in the direction of Satu Mare Mare, heading for the border at Csenger. The first 28-kilometer section of this motorway has just been put out to tender by NIF, with construction on the Romanian section due to start in 2023. It is planned that the M44 motorway will also reach Romania from Békéscsaba towards Sarkad, and will later join the future Arad-Nagyvárad motorway on the Romanian side, he said.
