page_title: Hungarian State Railways
section_title: 1950–2000
hierarchical_section_title: Hungarian State Railways / History / 1950–2000
caption_attribution_description: Magyar: MÁV 6342 (Siemens Desiro) Óbuda állomáson
context_page_description: Hungarian State Railways is the Hungarian national railway company, with divisions "MÁV START Zrt.", "MÁV-Gépészet Zrt." and "MÁV-Trakció Zrt.". The "MÁV Cargo Zrt" was sold to Austrian Federal Railways in 2007. The head office is in Budapest.
context_section_description: In the 1950s, an accelerated industrialization was ordered by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party and the railway was considered a backbone of these efforts. Overloaded trains were hauled by badly maintained locomotives on poor quality tracks. Unrealistic Five Year Plans were specified; not fulfilling them was considered sabotage. After accidents, railway workers were given show trials and sometimes even sentenced to death.
  All the time the production of steam locomotives continued, but at first in small numbers, as the Hungarian industry was fully booked producing Soviet war reparations. This included steam locomotives to Soviet designs, passenger and freight cars, and many other goods. The development of diesel locomotives started. The successor of the Kandó V40 locomotives, the Class V55 proved to be a failure and MÁV decided to purchase no more phase converter engines.
  During the 1956 Hungarian Revolution the railways were not seriously damaged. After the suppressed Revolution the system of Five-Year Plans was reintroduced but with lower targets. In 1958 steam locomotive manufacturing stopped in Hungary. 600 HP diesel-electric locomotives (Class M44) and 450 HP diesel hydraulic switchers (Class M31) were manufactured.
  By 1964, the German-designed, domestically-built MÁV Class V43 four-axle 25 kV AC 50 Hz electric locomotive entered service and eventually some 450 of this reliable engine became the workhorse of MÁV traction in passenger as well as freight service. Heavy diesel engines arrived from the USSR (M62) and Sweden/United States (M61). Track maintenance, however, always remained poor, preventing the rolling stock from using the system to its fullest.
  To this day 120 km/h (75 mph) (particularly 160 km/h (100 mph)) remains the top speed for trains in Hungary, though EU funds have become available to upgrade the network, especially tracks of the Trans-European Transport Networks. (Since Hungary lies in Central Europe, many important railway lines go through the country.) During the 1990s the state-owned MÁV gradually abandoned its most rural routes, but large scale passenger service cuts were blocked by political pressure. Still, the quality of general passenger service deteriorated considerably since Hungary converted to capitalism, as MÁV became focused on the more profitable cargo business. Relatively few people have access to the higher-quality "Intercity" express trains because of the unbalanced topography of the Hungarian railway network. Further expansion is also hampered by the shortage of high-quality passenger carriages.
caption: MÁV Siemens Desiro Diesel at Óbuda Station in Budapest
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