Monthly rail passes cheaper in Austria than Hungary

Hungarian railway passes for short journeys cost the same as their Austrian equivalents, although the price of a single is approximately one fifth as expensive, writes portal Index.hu. For longer journeys Austrian passes offer considerably better value, although Hungarian single tickets are calculated uniformly by the kilometer, making one-off journeys considerably cheaper.

A monthly employee's pass for the 34-kilometer Budapest-Vác route costs Ft 21,000 (€78.50), which equals the price of 40 single tickets at just Ft 525. If the month is 31 days long and includes four weekends, this translates to 23 working days or 46 single tickets per month. Based on this calculation, buying a pass saves just six single tickets, assuming there are no public holidays and the passenger does not take any vacation. Of course, buying a monthly pass is generally more convenient than standing in line twice a day or using a machine.

By contrast, in neighboring Austria, a single ticket for a similar 35-kilometer route costs as much as Ft 2,850 if converted to the Hungarian currency, a monthly pass costs Ft 21,360, nearly the same as in Hungary. Therefore, pass holders save money making just eight journeys per month. In addition, Austrian train passes for a distance of over 40 kilometers are cheaper than Hungarian ones, and for even longer distances, Austrian passes are considerably cheaper. These prices also include local public transport, while Hungarians traveling into Budapest also need to buy BKV passes.

The list prices may be misleading as passenger transport subsidiary of national railway company MÁV claims only 16% of passengers pay the full price for its services. However, Index.hu was unable to access recent data from the National Railway monopoly to support this statement.

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