Rail Travel in Hungary

Below is a detailed map of the railways of Hungary. You can zoom in by using the +/- buttons or by using the wheel on your mouse whilst hovering over the map.

The map has been extracted from the Railway Map of Europe with kind permission of the publishers.
You can purchase copies of the full map, as well as rail timetables, from The European Railway Timetable website

HUNGARY

Hungary has a fairly dense network centred on the capital, Budapest which boasts three termini, a metro network (including the oldest line on the Continent), trams and a cogwheel railway up the Buda hills. The front of the East (Keleti) Station is graced by statues of railway and steam pioneers James Watt and George Stephenson.
East of Budapest is the Great Hungarian Plain (or puszta) and Hungary’s second city, Debrecen with trams, trolleybuses, a university, plus a strong Protestant tradition in this majority Roman Catholic country. Many main lines are being slowly modernized with the help of European Union regional development funds.

INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS
Austria: There are regular Eurocity/Railjet style services both from Budapest to Vienna & beyond
The line from Szombathely to Graz has trains at least two-hourly throughout the day, On most journeys a change of train is required at the border station of Szentgotthard.
Slovakia & Czechia: Eurocity trains run regularly from Budapest to Bratislava, Prague & beyond.
There is a service every two hours from Budapest to Kosice via Miskolc.
Romania: There are regular services every two hours from Budapest to Arad. Of these three continue to Timisoara and two of these continue to Craiova and Bucarest. Two trains extend from Arad to Simeria and Brasov, one via Sibiu and one via Medias.
Five trains a day link Bekescsaba with Salonta, three of which have connections for Oradea.
Three trains a day link Debrecen with Valea lui Mihai. One continues to Brasov whilst two continue to Satu Mare with one continuing from there to Baia Mare. Two of these trains start in Budapest.
Serbia: The line from Budapest to Belgrade is currently closed for modernisation but is expected to re-open in March 2026.  Meanwhile 3 connections a day are possible changing at Szeged and Subotica
Croatia: There is one service a day from Budapest to Zagreb. Seven trains a day link Pecs with Osijek, all requiring a change at the border station of Bela Manastir. Connections are available at Pecs with trains to and from Budapest
Slovenia: There is one service a day from Budapest to Ljubliana
Ukraine: There is a link changing to the wide-gauge Ukrainian network via Zahony and Chop.

For those flying to Budapest, shuttle buses take you to Ferihegy station on the main line to Debrecen and to Kobanya-Kiszpest on the city’s metro system.
Rail passenger services are nearly all operated by MAV-START (see link below) though west of the city of Gyor some are operated by GySEV (see link below) which also serves part of the Burgenland in neighbouring Austria. Most Inter City trains require compulsory reservations.

IR November 2025