Balatonfenyves, Kecskemét, Nyíregyháza: game over

2009.12.08 (Fodor Illés)

Az utolsó vonat körüljár Táska állomáson
Fotó: Csanádi Sándor (2002.09.01.)

The closure of these railways has been predicted for ages. Two lines of Balatonfenyves were closed on 01.09.2002 but the surviver line to Somogyszentpál was reconstructed in 2003. The technical condition of Kecskemét and Nyíregyháza has been decreased continuously, the traffic was closed on Nyíregyháza between Herminatanya-Balsa and Herminatanya-Dombrád on September.

Why must they die? We don't know exactly. Hungarian government will close the passenger traffic on 29 standard and narrow gauge lines on 12.12.2009. The official communication says they want to save money with this decision. I think they could have some more effective ways for saving money not the closing of these lines. Somebody says this is a political game where the inns wants to punish the outs (most of the contryside regions where the endangered lines located vote for the outs). We can't chek this but the closure of the narrow gauge lines are ubelieveable.

The Ministhry of Transport, Telecommunication and Energy says local authorities or regions can operate these railways. But these are some problems, for example the new operators won't get any support for operating and the regions cannot operate these railways. Balaton-Boronka Kft. is an NGO unions the local authorities near Balatonfenyves wants to operate their railway but this needs a bottle with the officials. This is a tipical Hungarian story: try to do a former govermental activity with fighting down the red tape.

The outs says they will reopen the closed lines if they win the elections next year. But this is just a promise. In the other hand there is a good chance for the possibility of running the last trains on these railways on Saturday evening. Forever.