Hungarian national railway company, MÁV, has won the ten-year public bus service tender. We can continue to travel in Hungary with Volán buses, reported Világgazdaság.
On Wednesday, Construction and Transport Minister János Lázár signed the ten-year public bus service contract of MÁV, after the company won the concession tender announced in the matter. This means that the MÁV group will be Hungary’s exclusive public bus intercity passenger transport service provider for the next decade, so the usual Volán buses will remain.
The MÁV group is preparing for the next service period with significant reinforcement, purchasing a thousand new buses by next summer as part of the ten ministerial commitments.
Thanks to fleet modernization, MÁV will operate one of Europe’s most advanced vehicle fleets, meeting rising service demands under the proposed Passenger Transport Act. The new strategy aims to introduce or expand public transport in around 500 small Hungarian settlements, increasing daily services. As a result of the integration of the MÁV group, and thanks to the new ticket system, passengers can enjoy more and more advantages of having one company providing both fixed-track and road public transport services in Hungary.
The tender was called for by the National Concession Directorate and it was titled “Provision of Intercity Passenger Transport Services by Bus within the Territory of Hungary under a Service Concession”. Volánbusz Zrt. submitted a valid preliminary offer in September 2024, and then, following the extremely successful negotiation phase, submitted the final offer on February 24, 2025, in response to the final call for tenders, on behalf of the new, integrated MÁV.
The procedure, which ended with the successful participation of MÁV, is a significant milestone in the life of the new, integrated company, as
Volán services will serve Hungarian settlements for another ten years.
The benefits arising from the integration of rail and road public transport services are becoming increasingly tangible for passengers. An example of this is the new tariff system based on county and national passes. The new MÁV+ application is arriving at the beginning of April, which, although it will only reach full functionality by the end of the year, offers a solution to regular commuters and occasional travelers with a unified approach from the start track and bus transport options.
Fact
In our previous article we wrote that the idea of merging MÁV and the state bus operator has been discussed since 2010 but never materialized until last year. Since December 2023, both companies have been managed under a unified CEO and board of directors, and from February 1, 2024, they started to operate under a single organizational structure.
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Via Világgazdaság; Featured picture: MTI/Czeglédi Zsolt
