Travel time from this Hungarian city to Serbia will be much higher than promised

Strategic links are being built between Hungary and Serbia in the areas of energy and transport, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Belgrade on Friday. One of those links will be a passenger transport train. However, its travel time will be much longer than officials promised before.

According to Telex, the trains are scheduled to start carrying passengers on 24 October. However, their travel time will be 75 minutes between Szeged and Szabadka (Subotica), even though the distance between the two cities is only 50 kilometres. Meanwhile, the Serbian infrastructure minister, Goran Vesić, posted in August that the trains will complete the journey in only 35 minutes. Furthermore, Alexov Lyubomir, the Serbian representative in the Hungarian Parliament, also talked about 40 minutes in a 2021 speech.

Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, said during talks with his Serbian counterpart that travel time may decrease significantly provided the border check ends. Before, construction minister János Lázár thought passport control might happen in Szeged, but that failed due to the obstruction of the Serbians. Therefore, trains will complete the 50-km journey in 75 minutes the least, which is not too competitive since you can do so in only 45 minutes by car.

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Minister: Strategic links being built between Hungary, Serbia

During the bilateral talks Szijjártó said Europe was currently facing some serious crises and the energy supply crisis especially stands out among these. Only those can feel safe that can create as many links in energy supplies with their neighbours as possible, he added.