The Ministry of National Economy has entered into ten-year public service agreements on railway passenger transport with MÁV-START Ltd. and GYSEV Ltd. At the signing ceremony, Minister of State for Infrastructure Pál Völner said that the agreements created a more predictable framework for both the state as contractor and service companies, making planning easier as well.

The agreements signed as a result of one year’s preparatory work are to take effect on January 1, 2014. Instead of the earlier three years, the documents set provisions for ten years for, among others, the preparation and coordination of timetables and the rules for the calculation of financing, and particularly the financing of justified costs not covered from revenues.

Minister of State for Infrastructure of the Ministry of National Development Pál Völner explained:
“This is the first time that, in compliance with the provisions of EU legislation and the act on passenger transport services, a ministry acting on behalf of the state has entered into long-term public service agreements with railway companies. The commitments create a predictable operational and financing environment, thereby laying the grounds for improving the quality of railway passenger transport and the gradual replacement of old vehicles. By guaranteeing keeping and gradually developing the standard of communal transport services, the agreements facilitate the preservation of workplaces and strengthen the social prestige and acknowledgement of the railway profession. Setting the operational conditions for the long run paves the way for the most efficient utilisation of development funds possible in the EU financing period to begin next year.”

President-CEO of MÁV Ltd., Ilona Dávid, emphasised:
„The long-term agreement creates a balanced and stable regulatory environment for our activity and targets a steadily developing quality of services provided to passengers. The recently implemented developments have brought about visible results: unseen for decades, the number of passengers with both GYSEV and MÁV START Ltd’s rose both in 2011 and 2012. We have taken significant cost efficiency measures: last year was the first year for decades that MÁV Ltd. had an operating profit, of HUF 2.9 bn, and indicators at GYSEV and MÁV-START were similarly favourable. The experts of railway companies make joint efforts for the further improvement of the service standard and efficiency.”

CEO of MÁV-START Ltd. Csaba Ungvári underlined:
“There are over 139 million passengers annually who choose to travel by the inland trains of our company. We are grateful for passengers’ trust and make efforts with my colleagues to implement developments, targeting partly the purchase of new vehicles and partly the services related to railway transport, whereby travel can be made more comfortable. This year, we have signed an agreement on the purchase of another 42 FLIRT train engine, the prototype carriages of IC+ trains have been developed and wifi will be available in over 700 train carriages by the end of this year. The number of vehicles with bicycle carrying facility has grown and ticket purchase opportunities have widened through the installation of new ticket vending machines. The public service agreement signed means predictable financial management, which guarantees opportunity for further developments.”

CEO of GYSEV Ltd. Szilárd Kövesdi said:
“GYSEV has always made efforts to perform the passenger transport service duties assigned to it by the Hungarian and Austrian states at a high standard. This company has traditionally assigned great importance to the quality of passenger transport, which has produced significant results in the past few years. The long-term agreement now signed may enable us to keep raising the standard of passenger transport in Western Hungary.”

(Ministry of National Development, Communications Department)