Budapest-Vienna travel time will decrease significantly due to Austrian development

Currently, the travel time between the Hungarian and the Austrian capital is hard to calculate and much longer than it should be because of the renewal of a segment of the railway line in Hungary. However, that might change sooner than anybody thought. Austria announced a grandiose railway development plan, which would mean connecting Budapest with Vienna’s international airport by train and decreasing travel time between the two capitals significantly.

As we wrote HERE, the Austrian railway company separated the Hungarian system from the Western one due to the constant delays of the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV). That comes after János Lázár, Hungary’s minister for transport and construction, decided to renew the Vienna-Budapest line out of the blue. As a result, capacities from the Belgrade-Budapest railway development project had to be relocated, and MÁV was not able to keep its schedule to Vienna. Therefore, international trains always arrived late to the Austrian capital, so the Austrians decided to introduce a compulsory train change in the city’s railway station. As a result, they can stick to the timetable.

The renovation project will finish in December, so hopefully, normal traffic will be restored. And much more is to come, thanks to the Austrians.

According to g7.hu, the Austrian government plans to invest more than EUR 21 billion in railway development projects between 2024 and 2029. The Austrian climate protection and mobility ministry developed the relevant plans with their railway company, ÖBB. The aim is to increase the number of passengers and make railway transport attractive for shipping companies.

Budapest-Vienna travel time to decrease significantly

Apart from other lines (Brenner tunnel, Graz-Klagenfurt, etc.), the ambitious project has some Hungarian relevance. Critics say the railway development plan is too Vienna-centered, but that is good news for those travelling from Hungary to the Austrian capital.

Between 2025 and 2029, travel time between Budapest and Vienna will decrease from 2 hours 40 minutes to 2 hours 20 minutes. That is a considerable 20-minute fall. Furthermore, the Austrians will build a new railway line to the international airport. As a result, the airport will become easily reachable even from Budapest and Bratislava. That means Hungarians and tourists in Hungary may access many direct flights to destinations not connected with Budapest, e.g. the Transatlantic ones. We wrote about that in THIS article. Budapest Airport’s CEO, Kam Jandu, shared when Transatlantic flights may return to Budapest. We wrote about those plans HERE.