photo: https://dailynewshungary.com/hungarian-railways-to-renovate-50-major-train-stations-until-2023//Budapest
A new railway tunnel should be built in Budapest. The Budapest Development Agency (BFK) has already signed a contract for a feasibility study. The tunnel should connect the Déli pályaudvar area with the Nyugati pályaudvar. This is a contract worth EUR 4 million. The study must be completed within 18 months at the latest. Subsequently, a decision will be made on the implementation of the construction.
A consortium of Fomterv Civil Engineering Design (Hungary), SMA und Partner AG (Switzerland) and UNStudio, a Dutch company, is responsible for preparing the study. The study must examine all aspects of route planning, the feasibility of the construction and a cost-benefit analysis of the entire project. Simply put, the aim of the study is to determine costs, define the various stages of construction and analyze the social and environmental impact of the municipal investment.
The Hungarian company Fomterv Civil Engineering Design is responsible for the design of the railway infrastructure in Budapest. The Swiss company SMA und Partner has the task of creating a time schedule for the all construction stages of the railway tunnel. Other architectural and urban design work will be carried out by UNStudio from the Netherlands.
The study will be followed by a rail transport vision, which will take into account the suburban dimension and the future development of railways. A comprehensive revision of the railway infrastructure will also be carried out. Thanks to it, new transport lines should be created, which will connect eastern and western Hungary with the center of Budapest. As a result, the capacity of the Budapest Railway will be doubled.
The service of the main infrastructure and the transport service of the eastern station will also be planned. The city network is currently served through stations, which cause a narrowing of some parts of the railway infrastructure. Stations should be removed, which should increase capacity.
"A huge step towards a new era of urban and suburban railways in Budapest. This long-term investment would create significant additional capacity for more rail services to Budapest from the suburbs and large cities in Hungary and beyond," said David Vitéza, CEO of the Budapest Development Agency (BFK).
The decision to build the tunnel itself will be made after the creation of this study in 2022. However, this is a very crucial project, as Budapest is crossed by three trans-European railway corridors. They all intersect in the southern part of the city.