Hungary presses for a new public transport policy

With the introduction of democracy to Hungary in 1990, the government has been forced to finance a huge communist-era transport system, Hungarian State Railways (MAV), which was designed to carry great volumes of goods and passengers as produced by a centrally-planned economy. Times have changed, and with freight volumes that have steadily declined while employee levels have remained the same, the network's infrastructure showed signs of neglect. It is hoped this will be turned around with Hungary's new transport act, approved in April 2012; resulting in a shake-up of passenger services, it is designed to improve efficiency and introduce minimum service levels, as reported in this article.