Passenger trains will not run on the Budapest-Belgrade railway line when Hungary’s new timetable starts on 13 December 2026. Dávid Vitézy, Hungary’s minister for transport and investment, announced the delay on the evening of Friday 13 November 2026. He gave no new start date.
This matters to anyone planning to travel to Serbia by train from mid-December. If you wanted that trip, you cannot make it, and nobody will say when you can.
What the minister said
Vitézy said the Chinese contractor must repair the train control system on the line. A train control system is the equipment that watches train movements and slows or stops a train automatically, so it stays a safe distance from the train ahead. Until the repairs are done and the system passes new tests, no passenger service can start, he said.
He said the line had been tested hard for several weeks. The tests found small faults, mainly in software, in the safety system. After every change, the testing must begin again from the beginning, he said. The permits can only be issued once the checks finish with no faults left.
This is Vitézy’s account of the testing. It is not an independent engineering finding.
Vitézy also said this is the first line in Hungary where a Chinese manufacturer installs safety systems that meet European standards. He linked that to a decision of the earlier government led by Viktor Orbán. Because of this, he said, everything must be checked with special care before passenger service can begin.
Approval needs three parties to agree. The Hungarian authorities, the certifier and TÜV, an independent quality-assurance body, must all find the system satisfactory. Telex reported that TÜV was brought in by János Lázár, the transport minister in the previous government, and that Vitézy kept that arrangement.
A promise taken back
The delay is a change of direction. On 8 October 2026, Vitézy said the load test and the inspection of the ETCS train control system had both passed. ETCS is the European Train Control System, a standard set of equipment that trains and tracks use to communicate. He said then that by December the line could run at its full 160 kilometres per hour, with international passenger service starting.
Telex reported that domestic passenger service was expected in the second half of October, and international service in December.
Serbia and Austria expected trains too
The Austrian and Serbian railways had already announced that international passenger service on the line would start on 13 December. They based that on earlier successful tests and on information from MÁV, the Hungarian state railway. Telex reported that, at the end of October, the Serbian railway announced eight daily services from Belgrade: six to Budapest and two to Vienna.
Vitézy’s post says the new timetable does not include the line’s passenger trains. That contradicts those announcements.
Background
The Budapest-Belgrade railway is a cross-border project that has been under construction for years. It upgrades the Hungarian line from Budapest towards Kelebia, the border station with Serbia. The rebuilt line is made for speeds up to 160 kilometres per hour.
Freight trains started using the line at the end of February 2026. Passenger trains stopped using it in 2022, while the work was done. Telex reported that the Hungarian section cost 800 billion forints, and that 85 per cent of that came from a Chinese loan.
What to watch
Watch for a new date. Vitézy has given no start date, and the line cannot open until the contractor’s repairs pass fresh tests. Watch also whether the Serbian and Austrian railways change their own plans for the route, because their December announcements were based on Hungarian information.
Sources: Telex, 13 November 2026; Dávid Vitézy’s Facebook post of 13 November 2026 as reported by Telex and HVG, 14 November 2026; ANSA, 14 November 2026; SRNA, 14 November 2026; Izlaz, 14 November 2026; Vreme, 14 November 2026; Portfolio, 27 February 2026; Xinhua via China-CEEC, 8 October 2026.
Image: SZERVÁC Attila, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustration — the rebuilt double-track Budapest-Belgrade railway line at Dunaharaszti, Hungary, photographed in July 2025. It shows the line whose passenger service has been delayed; it is not a picture of the delay itself.