Hungarian railway workers rejected last-minute offer

The closure of the 38 railway lines is postponed until the end of 2008, but the railway employee's strike is going ahead anyway, writes fn.hu.

The Economy and Transport Ministry made a last-minute proposal offering to keep 26 of the auxiliary lines planned for closure in operation until the end of next year, while the remaining 12 may be decommissioned by the end of February. The ministry will introduce bus services on these 12 lines to test whether buses would be suitable for replacing railway traffic. The ministry made this proposal as an eleventh-hour offer to railway trade unions in the hope of preventing the strikes.

The unions said they cannot accept the ministry's proposal as it does not offer any long-term guarantee that the auxiliary lines will not be closed. As a result, the strike is going ahead as planned from six am to noon. The strike affects 1,200 trains and was expected to cause major traffic congestion, but this dis not materialise. Traffic in Budapest is only slightly more congested than normal, writes vezess.hu.

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