Waiting times at the Romanian border will be eliminated, and more trains will run between Budapest and Vienna.
According to the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV), the new timetable—effective from 14 December—brings several important changes in both domestic and international traffic. Adjustments will affect routes to Austria, Ukraine, and Romania as well.
Romania
The biggest change in international traffic concerns trains to Romania: due to the end of Schengen border checks, international services will become faster, and timetables on all routes will be adjusted.
Stopping times at the Lőkösháza and Curtici border stations will be reduced to the minimum needed for technical procedures, significantly shortening travel times toward Bucharest, Southern Transylvania, and the Banat region:
• Between Békéscsaba and Arad, travel time will drop by nearly 45 minutes. All border-related procedures will be moved to Lőkösháza, where trains will stop for 21 minutes heading into Romania and 28 minutes on their return. In Curtici (Kürtös), trains will stop for only 2 minutes.
As part of the changes, domestic InterCity trains will be extended from Békéscsaba to Lőkösháza, or will start from Lőkösháza instead of Békéscsaba. This reduces the risk of delays caused by late international arrivals and replaces the local trains previously running between Kétegyháza and Lőkösháza.
• More services from Valea lui Mihai (Érmihályfalva) will improve access to Debrecen. On the Debrecen–Nyírábrány–Valea lui Mihai line, in addition to the current one daily train pair between Debrecen and Satu Mare, there will be 6 more pairs on weekdays and 2–3 more pairs per direction on weekends.
• Earlier changes, introduced after Romania joined Schengen, already increased services between Békéscsaba–Gyula–Sarkad–Salonta. Since mid-May, Salonta has been connected with Hungary by 7 train pairs per day, instead of the previous 2, significantly improving travel options and reducing border-station waiting times in Kötegyán.
Ukraine and Austria
Since autumn 2025, Ukraine has expanded the network that can be reached by standard-gauge trains from Hungary. In the 2025/2026 timetable period, access to Transcarpathia will further improve from both Vienna and Budapest.
A new east–west night network will be introduced: a combined night train with branches from Kyiv, Uzhhorod, and Bucharest to Vienna. The Dacia (Bucharest–Vienna) and the new Ung (Uzhhorod/Kyiv–Vienna) night trains will be coupled at Szolnok and will bypass Budapest Keleti station.
The daytime Hortobágy EuroCity will continue to run between Budapest and Vienna in its current time slots (departing early morning from Keleti to Vienna, returning in the evening).
• The Dacia international train (nos. 346/347) will run on the Bucharest–Szolnok–Vienna route, and the Ung train (nos. 7/8) on the Kyiv/Uzhhorod–Szolnok–Vienna route. Both will stop at Kőbánya-Kispest and Budapest-Kelenföld, but will not enter Keleti station.
• The Hortobágy EuroCity will remain, but on a shorter route: it will run between Nyíregyháza and Vienna.
A train departing Záhony at 03:55 (no. 6219) will provide a connection, while in the evening, a new train departing Nyíregyháza at 23:25 (no. 6248) will ensure connections towards Záhony.
• The Tisza–Szamos EuroCity will run to and from Uzhhorod this year. After the timetable change, some local trains will operate to Berehove (Beregszász) instead of Chop (Csap).
• A new EuroCity service named Ignác Semmelweis / Béla Bartók (nos. 341 and 342) will run between Budapest and Vienna in both directions, using the current Dacia time slot.
