Hungaria (train)

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The first railcars for the Hungaria were from 1960 to 1962 the SVT Cologne

Hungaria (temporarily Hungaria-Express ) is the name of a pair of trains that have been running between Germany and Hungary since 1960 . The route originally ran from Berlin via Dresden , Prague , Brno and Bratislava to Budapest , but the train route has already started in Hamburg for several years . In the further course, especially on the section in Czechoslovakia and from 1992 in the Czech Republic, several different routes were served. Hungaria has been run as EuroCity since 1993 . The train got its name from the Latin name for Hungary.

history

The first continuous train connections between Berlin and Budapest already existed towards the end of the 19th century. The increasing demand led to the introduction of the Berlin-Budapest-Orient-Express as a luxury train in 1900 . He led through coaches to the Orient Express , and the train that started in Berlin in the morning did not arrive in Budapest until around midnight. The insufficient demand meant that the train was stopped again in 1902. Parallel to the luxury train that ran via Breslau and Oderberg , there were other connections in conventional trains, mostly via Vienna. During the First World War , the Balkan train was introduced in 1916 , with parts of the train running between Berlin and Budapest via Dresden and Vienna on the one hand, and via Breslau and Oderberg on the other, the Dresden train part bypassing Prague on the route of the former Austrian Northwest Railway (ÖNWB) via Nymburk . The train runs at that time took between 15 and 24 hours. The individual connections had more or less need, and they were often discontinued. In the interwar period , after the establishment of Czechoslovakia , trains ran for the first time between Berlin and Budapest via the later route of the Hungaria via Prague and Bratislava, bypassing Vienna. With the D 147/148 there was already a daily connection in the approximate driving position of the later Hungaria before the war . After the war, due to the long border controls and the neglected infrastructure caused by the war, the connection was initially only possible with night trips.

The Hungaria was added to the 1960 summer schedule as a new fast daily connection with train numbers Ext 154/155 from Berlin Ostbahnhof to Budapest Nyugati pu with stops in Dresden-Neustadt , Dresden Hauptbahnhof , Bad Schandau , Děčín hln , Ústí nad Labem hln , Praha střed , Brno hlavní nádraží , Bratislava hlavná stanica , Štúrovo and Szob introduced. The scheduled travel time of the new connection, initially served by SVT Cologne of the Reichsbahn, was 14.5 hours in the direction of Budapest and 15 hours in the opposite direction. Between Berlin and Prague, the Hungaria took over the position of the Vindobona , which has since left Berlin about two hours later. The train route was in high demand from the start and was connected to a train to Sweden in the south-north direction in Berlin . The planned travel times turned out to be too short and could not be kept. In the early days, travel times of up to 19 hours were the rule, which roughly corresponded to the pre-war times. Only gradually did the journey take the 15 hours planned back in 1960.

The constantly increasing number of passengers led to the 1974 summer timetable for the conversion of the Hungaria into a locomotive hauled train. A year earlier, the train route, which was still classified as Ext, had received the new train numbers Ext 74/75, with these train numbers the Hungaria was now classified as an express train . There were no noteworthy changes to the train route over the next few years. In 1986, the Reichsbahn and ČSD merged the Hungaria between Berlin and Prague with the Vindobona , using its train number D 374/375. This was the first time that sleeping and couchette cars were added to the train route, which was previously operated as a daily train . These ran as through cars - also a novelty in Hungaria, which had previously driven straight to destination - from Belgrade and Budapest to Malmö . A year later, the name "Hungaria" was abandoned, only the train route between Prague and Budapest, which was newly classified as Interexpress (IEx), kept this name. The Hungaria's seating carriages continued to run continuously between Berlin and Budapest as before. A year later, the railways involved reversed their joint management, and from 1988 the Hungaria ran again as IEx 74/75 between Berlin and Budapest. In Berlin the route changed from the Ostbahnhof to the Berlin-Lichtenberg station . The Vindobona also ran since been restored to its previous driving position. The through coaches from Budapest and Belgrade to Malmö remained in the Hungaria.

The Hungaria near Prague with the CD series 371
The Hungaria in Dresden with the 101 007

In 1993, the train system was converted to EuroCity and the train's rolling stock was converted to modern wagons. The trains are air-conditioned throughout and - after they were initially designated as EC 174/175 - are now numbered EC 172/173. Up to 1989 the trains sometimes had twelve cars - in 2017 the train length was a maximum of seven cars. The time to travel from Berlin to Budapest has been reduced to 12 hours. Between Budapest and Prague, Hungaria has been running sleeper and couchette cars on weekends as through cars to and from Bar on the Adriatic for several years .

Vehicle use

Railcar from 1960 to 1974

From 1962 to 1974, various Ganz multiple units shaped the route of trains

It was agreed to operate the trains with Deutsche Reichsbahn and ČSD railcars . The DR started with its class SVT Köln railcars , which received additional tanks for the almost 1,000 kilometer route. The new train connection was successful, the mandatory seat tickets were soon constantly sold out.

From 1962, ČSD started using the M 495.0 railcars supplied by the Hungarian manufacturer Ganz , which were largely identical in construction to the DR series VT 12.14 . Since these turned out to be too weak for the four-part operation, they were carried out in certain sections with two three-part units in the main travel season. On the route Prague – Berlin – Prague, the train was formed year-round with two units. In addition, the train was closed to tour groups in the summer. This condition and the well-known poor running characteristics and maintenance conditions of these railcars, which were completely withdrawn from the Reichsbahn and ČSD after less than 20 years, led to their replacement in 1966 by the ČSD class M 298.0 railcars also supplied by Ganz , which in the running characteristics were better and more powerful. This made a four-part train formation possible again. With the M 498.0 series, the Hungaria Express was consistently driven with two four-part units, one of which was changed in Prague. The ČSD operated with these railcars until 1974. Then these vehicles had reached the age of ten years and could no longer fully cope with international traffic. In addition, electrification of all routes was within reach. In the same year it was decided to switch the train to locomotive-hauled trains and the trains were classified as normal express trains .

Locomotive hauled trains from 1974

On the southern section, the ČSD series ES 499.0 shaped the
Hungaria at times

The conversion of the Hungaria as a locomotive-hauled train had the advantage that more space could be made available. It came at the time when the ČSD series ES 499.0 was first deployed on the Prague – Bratislava section electrified with two power systems. Mostly deployed between Prague and Bratislava, occasionally deployments between Bratislava and Děčín were observed after the Prague – Děčín section was electrified. The MÁV V43 series was particularly used on the Hungarian sections . Between the ČSSR and the GDR there were still the catenary sections across the border and from Dresden to Berlin , which was soon to become a domain of the DR class 132 . Between Dresden and Děčín, the train was brought across the border with a different traction, although the DR class 23.10 could occasionally be observed until 1980 . Until 1983, when the rail line between Berlin and Dresden was electrified, the Hungaria ran entirely with diesel locomotives in the German section.

The electrical gap across the border to the Czech Republic and the associated elimination of the locomotive change in Bad Schandau took place in 1989. Thereafter, the ČD class 371 and the structurally identical DR class 230 took over the traffic, initially continuously to Berlin. After the maximum speed between Berlin and Dresden was increased to 160 km / h in 1992, the locomotive had to be changed again in Dresden, since the dual-system locomotives are only approved for 120 km / h. Since then, the 371 series has only run the Hungaria between Dresden and Prague. The class 112 initially drove between Berlin and Dresden, which was replaced by the new DB class 101 at the end of the 1990s . After 1989, the ZSSK series 350 drove south of Prague continuously to Budapest. The ČD series 380 has taken over the service since 2014 . These locomotives should take over the continuous traffic between the endpoints from the timetable change in 2016, which has not been done so far (January 2017). For several years there was talk of running the train with the multi-system Pendolino trains from ČD (successor to ČSD from 1993), this is no longer planned (as of 2017).

From 1974 onwards, apart from individual reinforcement cars, the Hungaria car park was provided exclusively by ČSD until 1986. As a rule, the train consisted of a dining car running in the middle of the train between two 1st class cars and seven to nine 2nd class cars, with booster cars being provided by the Reichsbahn and MÁV before public holidays or on weekends. With the changeover to the joint tour with the Vindobona , a regular group of MÁV wagons boarded the train for the first time. The MÁV also provided the sleeping car to Malmö, while the sleeping and couchette cars from Belgrade were provided by the Yugoslav from 1986 . For the 1989 annual timetable, the Reichsbahn took over all seated cars in Hungaria, only the dining car continued to come from Czechoslovakia. A year later, the ČSD again provided all cars, with the exception of the Malmö through car.

After 1990 the through coaches to Malmö were discontinued. With the changeover to EuroCity , the train formation was changed to the scheme used in almost all EC trains, consisting of a block of 1st and 2nd class cars, which are separated by the dining car. In the 1993/94 annual timetable, the Hungaria consisted of a mixed combination of intercity cars from the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR). The Hungaria cars have been provided entirely by MÁV since 1994, apart from the occasional DB reinforcement cars and the ČD through cars to Bar, which have been introduced for some years.

Accidents

On its original route from Berlin Friedrichstrasse to Budapest, the train covered a distance of almost 1,000 kilometers. The following accidents occurred:

  • September 27, 1960: A fire broke out in the VT 137 275 railcar while traveling from Prague to Budapest, as a result of which the vehicle had to be retired later.
  • February 15, 1968: In Doberlug-Kirchhain station , a class M 495.0 railcar hit a shunting locomotive parked in the station area in thick fog. The ČSD train driver and a train attendant did not survive the collision, five passengers were seriously injured and 20 other passengers were slightly injured. One multiple unit in the row counting two units was destroyed. The Reichsbahn had to hand over a unit of its identical class VT 12.14 to the ČSD.

literature

  • Rico Bogula: International express trains in the GDR . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-88255-720-6 , pp. 126-130
  • Wolfgang Dath: The SVT of the type "Görlitz" , EK-Verlag Freiburg 1998, ISBN 3-88255-205-0 .

Web links

Commons : Hungaria (Zug)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Werner Sölch: Orient Express. The heyday and decline of a luxury train . 4th edition, Alba Verlag, Düsseldorf 1998, p. 25
  2. a b c d e Wolfgang Dath: The SVT of the type "Görlitz" , EK-Verlag Freiburg 1998, ISBN 3-88255-205-0 , page 73.
  3. ^ German course book summer 1939, table 70
  4. Rico Bogula: International express trains in the GDR . Freiburg 2007, p. 128
  5. Train formation plan EC 173 Hungaria, annual timetable 2015/2016 , accessed on February 12, 2016
  6. Eisenbahn-Kurier Month 12/2016, DB focus
  7. Rico Bogula: International express trains in the GDR . Freiburg 2007, p. 129
  8. ^ Newspaper report about the accident in Doberlug-Kirchhain