MAV-START INTERCITY HUNGARY REVIEW / HUNGARIAN TRAIN TRIP REPORT 

The V43 is probably the most iconic hungarian electric locomotive. I'm hungarian.

Can't say I've ever seen a built-in bottle opener as a feature in any train. Not even any vehicle.

I actually always prefer the carriages with openable windows, even if it’s super hot. Keeping the window open for the entire ride, feeling the air and listening to the sounds of the tracks. Gosh, I miss it so badly rn!

It’s not an InterCity train, just a fast one, reinforced with InterCity cars. It has been doing so since December 2006. I just call it Half InterCity. There was a dining car on the train until 2014. It also carried a car with a separate luggage compartment until 2019. The luggage car was part of the fast train section (Fresh Air stock). While the dining car is for the InterCity section (Air Conditioned stock). The full rake compositon of Half InterCity from Budapest to Szeged looks like in 2006 - 2013: Electric engine V43 or 431 (nowadays serial number), 1 piece Ao or AB, 2-4 pieces Bo, 1 piece BDh (passenger car with luggage section), 1 piece WRR (dining car for the second generation IC cars), 2 pieces Bp (second class version of second generation IC cars), 1 piece Ap (first class version of second generation IC cars). In nowadays and it seen this video this train composition is Electric engine V43 or 431 (nowadays serial number), 3-5 pieces B(d), 1 or 2 pieces Bp (second class version of second generation IC cars), 1 piece Ap (first class version of second generation IC cars). Ao and Bo was made in Poland, in city is Poznan. They were withdrawn from circulation. B(d) was made in RÁBA company, in Győr, Hungary, 50 years. The second generation IC cars it's not a new cars, it's they have undergone renovations in the early 90s.

As a fellow Hungarian, I might have a bit of bias but MÁV is the best train company I have traveled with so far.

I PREFER FRESH AIR STOCK BECAUSE IT IS COOOOOOOOOOL.

You asked whether we preferred air conditioned or opening windows on trains:; to me it depends on the type of train. If locomotive hauled then for me it's opening windows. If boring EMU's/DMU's then air con! Btw I enjoyed your video

Nice trip report like always! I saw some people with no maks... 🥵 This train looks cool and modern.

Hi! I really like your video! Please do more about MÁV!!! A cool thing you might not have known, is that the air-conditioned IC coaches are actually refurbished versions of the non-IC coaches that have those openable windows. In the 90s, the whole interior was changed and the doors were replaced when the Intercity services were introduced. :-) Also, the coaches you travelled in have had a 'makeover' recently, with a new color scheme and some refurbishments. (So recently that there are still some coaches left with the old IC design)

Overall nice video, however I'd like to point out a few things. I'm from Hungary, so be prepared for a little bit biased opinion. :D TL;DR: There are a lot worse trains in Hungary, and some nice ones, like the FLIRT. Longer version: The train you took is a so-called Hibrid-Intercity which means that besides the IC-coaches it also has a few 'fast' train train coaches serving as lower-cost options. They were built in the late 60s and 70s in Győr(Rába MVG was the name of the factory), the town where I went to high school, so I can't blame them. :) Having a 8 seat compartment is undeniably strange, but when you think about that in a second class open seating coach has eight seats per row then it makes a bit of sense. Originally they had faux leather seats with wooden-looking walls, but a few years ago they 'upgraded' them with fabric seat upholstery, push-button operated automatic doors, the questionable light yellow and orange indoor paint scheme and removed one of the two toilets to make space for bicycle racks. I don't think that they had the windows shown at 6:13 before. :D These IC-coaches shown in the video are modernized versions of the older coaches. After the wall fell down MÁV didn't had the sufficient stock for Intercity and international trains. They bought about 70 CAF coaches(first and second class, restaurant, sleeper included), nearly the same ammount of first and second class from DWA Bautzen and around 50 units were built domestically. Most of them were and are used internationally. However they were too expensive for MÁV, so they started rebuilding older Rába coaches for Intercity services around that time(1994-1997). They got new side panels, new boogies(and an upgrade from 120 to the astonishing speed of 140 km/h), new seats, push-button entrance doors that cover most of the stairs and air conditioning. They were called 2G Intercity(2nd generation), as there was a very small ammount of experimental rebuilt IC-coaches before. There is also the small series of 3G coaches which were rebuilt around 2008 from yet again older coaches(built around 1979-80). A few years ago MÁV started to refurbish these 'cheaper' IC coaches. It includes GPS-based displays, 230V sockets, new upholstery and interior paint scheme corresponding to the new IC+ coaches. In the early 90s Ganz designed a 4-section Intercity EMU capable of 160 km/h, called MÁV Bvmot(now MÁV 434, nicknamed 'Samu'). Only three were made as MÁV considered them to be too expensive. Since the CAF, Bautzen and Dunakeszi coaches were delivered MÁV didn't buy new long distance stock until the IC+ project(2013). They are planned to be built in-house by MÁV at its maintenance center based in Szolnok. Its start was very rough, as there wasn't enough capacity to keep the older coaches(including CAF) properly maintaned at the same time. Many thought it'll become a failure to produce coaches at a repair center, and it'd be better to order new coaches from Stalder or Siemens. I'm still sceptical about it, but as they're fixing the early issues with the production it might work out well(-ish). Although the multi-compartment version doesn't have low floor(yet). If they succeed, these older 2G IC coaches might end up as the lower cost coaches, however it's still unlikely to happen in this decade. Recently MÁV put out a public procurement for 115 new electric locomotives to replace some of the older V43 series(nowadays called 431/432/433, only capable of 120 km/h), and 50 battery EMUs for non-electrified lines and regional transport. They probably will be Vectrons or TRAXXes and FLIRTs(mostly serving as suburban trains).It is essential because most of the V43 series is more than 50 years old and MÁV only has 35 modern locos(ES64U2 and TRAXX P160 AC2). Although I doubt that it will solve most of the railway problems in Hungary. For example, they are a couple of lines where trains could reach 160 km/h, but since ETCS isn't installed(only EVM120) they are only allowed to go up to 120 km/h, except Line No. 1 where four railway carriers operate passenger trains (MÁV, GYSEV/Raaberbahn, ÖBB Railjet, and RegioJet since this August), Trains can go up to 160 km/h between Hegyeshalom and Tata. This fact corresponds to the quality of the trains there, and most of them are able to reach the line's maximum speed. MÁV would have a very serious prestige loss if it wasn't like this. For example Raaberbahn's FLIRT3 EMUs make MÁVs and their own FLIRT2 EMUs look oldschool at Győr station(only the end or start of Raaberbahn's regional trains are on line 1). The 'worst' IC coach here is the same type shown in the video, serving as an additional car on the exceptional days when the trains with their normal configuration would be full and they can't find a better coach(and then the train is limited to 140km/h). This is the line I use frequently, so not only western are astonished by tooking the train shown in the video. :D The sad thing is that it costs the same per km as the Intercity-coach from Your video. I like to see it with rose-tinted glasses, because reality is often disappointing. For example ICs going to Szeged doesn't always have even one IC coach during the summer due to the sortage made by trains going to Lake Balaton. :(

Fresh air windows are the best! :-)

Wasn't the "not flushing" toilet a toilet that doesn't have closed system, i.e. throws stuff on tracks?

I would have quite happily watched the full 1 hour 16 minute journey with you hanging out the window with your camera 😉 Think these trains whilst quite old and maybe not up to standard have a certain charm, no?

I reeeeeeally like the “non-IC” carriages cos of memories and the sounds, and so far prefer these older “IC” carriages to any of the new ones. These older IC carriages still have proper seats with recline, the ones r fancy but way less comfy.

The openable windows just keep the ride in a flower breeze in the late of spring. AC is just keeping it enclosed, running in a dirty windowed box with crybabies, and so on...

Thanks for showing me the bike storage :)

I rode on one of the new trains a while back and they hadn't changed the announcement system from the German one it came with, so it was announcing completely incorrect stations. I prefer going by volánbusz from Budapest because the train doesn't always stop at my station when it's supposed to, at least a bus driver I can yell at if he doesn't stop.

Nice trip report the train does look rather nice but is very high above the platform not ideal for wheelchair users and it seems like mother nature is taking back the rail tracks One more thing that "toilet flush" at the bottom is most likely a shoe polish mechanism 😂😂😂

Thank you to you for this video, but I have the impression that this trip was interminable and above all appalling. Very painful to travel with. This is strongly felt, the first class of this train corresponds to a fifth class with us ... ahah. Are you sure it's safe to travel with it in the middle of the coronavirus?

7:59 that old man in orange is grandpas neighbor 😭😭 i’m 99% sure

So to travel from Budapest to another city one needs to reserve a seat through online system?and this travel accounts for an intercity travel?

AirCon. Is fun to go once or twice without air con, but if you travel and comute frequently you want condition, not only sensations. And I know what I am speaking as in my country there are still in service lots of trains without aircon. And today it seems there are 35 degress outside. Great video!

4 god sake, change this font to some normal helvetica

The trains looks totaly same as czech trains. Only colours of seats are different 😂

Air conditioning of course