Budapest, Nov 29 (Agency) The passenger traffic on the railway between the Hungarian city of Szeged and the Serbian city of Subotica resumed on Tuesday after an eight-year hiatus, Hungarian State Railways (MAV) said. Rail passenger service between Szeged and Szabadka [Hungarian name for Subotica] resumed after eight years with a frequency of five pairs of trains per day,” MAV said on the website. It will take approximately one and a half hours for passengers to travel from one city to the other, including time for border checks, the release said. MAV recalled that freight traffic on the section has been carried out since August 2022 and that 13 kilometers (8 miles) of rail tracks had been renewed on the Hungarian side between Szeged and the Roszke border crossing.
Investments in the development of the Szeged-Subotica railway project could be fully completed in 2025, the statement read. Hungarian Minister of Construction and Investment Janos Lazar was among the first passengers to ride a train along the route, and said that “the railway symbolizes the unity, common past and future of Hungary and Serbia” and “provides valuable assistance to students and workers traveling between the two countries and families trying to keep in touch with their loved ones living on the other side of the border.” According to the Serbian Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, the construction of a 108.2-kilometer-long high-speed railroad section between the Serbian city of Novi Sad and Subotica will be completed by the end of 2024. The Belgrade-Budapest high-speed railroad is expected to be launched in 2025, and the travel is expected to take less than three hours.