It isn't just MÁV's fault that people love to leave their mess behind. You have no idea what kind of sh*t people are able to make on trains. You should talk to the cleaning staff.
@@JozseffirstGamingchannel for real, I live next to Ferihegy airport and I get on old trains that come and go from there that are the 40yo, never cleaned, windows so dirty the screen is yellow - quality kind.
What is beyond my understanding that when the rails to Vienna were reconstructed not a single railway station was refitted...this is ridiculous that almost all stations on one of our most important routes in the country (Tatabanya, Komarom, Gyor etc) are all in a terrible state of repair
Yes, and from Austria when the train goes to the Keleti Station in Budapest it cross áll the ghetto quarter. Horrible look to the foreihners who arrive first to the country , they think áll Hungary is a carbage. In East Hungary have much friendlier stations renovated and with flowers. I really dont undestand why the government not put effort to look the stations arts like our Bridgestone in Budapest with releives , colums , small tatues dekorations and should made of nice natural materials what the hungarians use to their homes!
@@zalapeter Look bad but I more upset of levels where I can hardly reach the first step of the train and trying to load or unload a heavy suitcase, or logging it underground and then back up to the platform and even locations where they have an elevator (ferihegy) it never works. High overpass to up and then down. So never mind the looks in my opinion.
in hungary almost nobody use trains only fo cargo. most family have a two cara and we have a dense highway network and also a long range busses on it what is way faster than trains and more confortable.
@@makoado6010 Oh boy. where do I start. yes, lot of cars in Hungary and lot of crazy drives and accidents. Bad roads , stickers, high gas prices. Busses, I took a Pest - Baja a few years ago, hot (it was summer) dirty , but so dirty that reminded me of the soc times. Yes trains only go to some places so it's only used there while busses are available to everywhere basically. Took the train (kind of local train) Cegled - Ferihegy. Nice clean quiet. Maybe just I got a lucky train, but I would say much cheaper and easier than anything else from there!
Superb trip review! Really enjoyed it, thanks for sharing it with us. I am also really happy that you had a great time with MAV! I believe they have great potential with so many eager, smart people working there, it’s just that the government likes to take them n MAV for granted, making them work with very little. As for the crew telling you not to film….we have a few of those. I actually reported one of the rude ones before. We have a few “rotten apples” in the basket but from my experience the majority are wonderful people. Safe travels and thanks again!
In case of CAF in Hungary, so, they have a very good history here, as they also, outside of MAV Start carriages, produced Urboses for Budapest (including longest trams in the world, being 56 meters long) and Debrecen, and, since 2018, Solaris is also a part of CAF, so that's why there's saying "Pole, Hungarian brothers be...".
The Polish-Hungarian saying two good friends is much older. In several cases, Poland had a king of Hungarian origin, and in many cases the two peoples helped each other. There is almost a brotherly relationship, even if there are arguments. Show me a family where there was never an argument. By the way, we only refer to CAF cars as "cafka". It's a play on words. Cafka means bitch.
I took this train back in the day when it was running from Munich in 2014. It was super comfortable. I woke up in Hungary and it was so beautiful watching scenery outside whilst having breakfast in bed.
I have travelled on a MAV sleeper about 5 times now including two return trips between Budapest and Split. It was really superb, made totally by having an old style dining car on board. I had a full dinner and then in the morning a cooked breakfast before arriving in Split. I know having a dining car is very rare but it was busy for much of its journey and the dining car crew and sleeping car attendants didn’t have a very long rest. The sleeping cars were really good indeed with comfy beds and really great air conditioning as you say. Really great!
Good that you tried the Hungarian sleeper train, hope you tried others as well :) On the showers on the CAF sleeper - i have never seen them working, MÁV-Start does not offer the shower service. Actually these Görlitz sleepers, which were acquired from Wagon Slovakia a few years ago in a better condition in my opinion than the CAF ones. The CAF ones may look nincer, but they have many smaller issues, like not locking doors, etc.
I love travelling on the Nightjet but with OeBB introducing their new tariff it is starting to get way too expensive. In the first week of January, I booked a comfort deluxe sleeping compartment for two to travel in June from Amsterdam to Innsbruck - the cost was €628! Single occupation of the same compartment was in excess of €1000. These costs are excessive, especially when you know you are travelling in 30-year old coaches which have not been refurbished.
I found almost exactly the same thing when I looked at going from Innsbruck to Amsterdam, it was over 600EUR for single occupancy. Crazy prices which I will never entertain.
@@bigben5051 That is absolute madness! You could fly or even drive for cheaper! I live in Sweden and my boyfriend lives in Netherlands and I could get a 2 way flight between Gothenburg and Amsterdam for less than 400 Euro if finding the good deals (and even flights have gotten a lot more expensive with the pandemic as many low cost lines have discontinued many of their routes)
As a Hungarian it's great to see an outside perspective. Next time you travel with MÁV you should definitely try a Premium seat car. It has leather recliner seats and a free hot beverage included. Also at the other end of the car there is a buffet you can get snacks or simple hot food like pies. I think it's really cool. I really enjoy it when I travel from Budapest to the countryside.
Great trip. I don't know how many train attendant onboard this train, but since this train running to Budapest from three different departures cities, I think there's more than one train attendant onboard, and looks like the attendant at Zurich departure is stricter than others. Overall nice train, and yeah nice livery to be fair.
In the last millennium I used to travel from Budapest to Karlsruhe on the train during the night in a sleeping car. It was a pretty good way to travel. Slept through the night, arrived pretty fresh, went to work, no time wasted.
I think it is because if they do a small unintentional mistake and it is taped, they might lose their job. They just want to avoid extra trouble. And also, the other passenngers have the right not to be filmed by a fellow one
Luckily there are no such rules in Hungary, banning rail photography. There are some railwayman who likes to forbid photography on their own, mostly because the do something bad. For instance that guy should not really closed that corridor.
There should be attached also part Stuttgart - Rijeka that splits in Ljubljana. At least it existed in 2022 and 2023 (Croatian seating and couchette car). ;)
Uh, Kálmán Imre... I still have PTDS about it. During 2022 summer MÁV decided to swap (or maybe ÖBB asked) a car from the middle of the assembly in the last minute, they started to replace it, but they didn't removed the passengers from the cars to minimize the late, but all cars become hot during the reassembly (it was around 21:00 but still over 30°C, it was a super hot week, and obviously the cars ran on battery during the reassembly without AC). Somebody kicked out a window, other people have get off the train on the assembly area, etc. Also the ÖBB train broke down too so we got an another MÁV train. So instead of 20:40 we started around 04:00 and only travelled until Hegyeshalom because the ÖBB train driver didn't waited our line - I guess it's workday was ended and ÖBB didn't provided a replacement driver. So we had to switch to a small regional train until Vienna (you can guess how the train was looked after the whole international train joined to the regular commuters...) and eventually we reached Münich with an early Railjet from Keleti... I know there was several serious fuckups and this kind of events which was ended in the press are rare, but still. Also about the sleeping car: I had a ride once in similar car but to Tranylvania also on top level. That cutout in the corner is super annoying. I'm also around 187, I hate that my legs had to hanging down in that cutout. I don't understand why it is necessary I don't see the added value that the top bed can be tilt up.Also I found that newer MÁV couchette cars have a slightly longer bed (maybe with 1-2 cm), which makes them a slightly bit comfortable. But otherwise they're a good cars and usually I didn't had any complain about the quality of the service. Maybe one thing: for me the pillows are too soft I usually ask for an extra blanket using below the pillow. (I always got it, wasn't any problem about that.) But I prefer hard pillows so it's completely personal thing.
Yeah, it was easy to see in the video that the pillow was almost nothing. He was way to nice about the train in this video to compare it to the nightjet.
@@IThinkICare I don't think that he was too nice. They're not a bad cars. And about the pillows: my GF use a pillows like this. Also she prefer more softer beds. I prefer hard ones.
Excellent video, sir. It's amazing to see how extensive and well-developed your railway network is. Truly impressive. I'm from Saudi Arabia, and we also have a bullet train here, but it's only 450 km long.
I like it a lot more when you have captions, and all you hear is the sounds from the environment and the train. Feels a lot more cozy is my opinion, and takes me back to when I was a child and traveled a lot on trains.
Well, I know this train. I travelled on Budapest-Stuttgart on November 30th. It was surprisingly good. Even though I paid 150 EUR for one way, I was sharing the sleeping compartment with another person. The best part is that breakfast is included in the fare, an a-la-carte one, you can select up to 6 items.
If you take the equasion price/quality into account, I would not call Nightjet Europe's best anymore. Single sleepers just are not possible under 420/450 euro. I will return to their service once the prices drop. For the service shown here you pay about 180 euro, the part for Zagreb you pay 225 euro and for Venice (the Nightjet part) you pay 450 euro.
well, as a hungarian, I can tell that trains that go abroad are usually the best looking and maintained trains of the fleet, aslo, saying that it's modern.... eehh, well we still have hundreds of engines that are 40+ years old in regular service and genuenly have delays all the time.
Thanks, it was a fun to watch! I used another connection to Germany (EN Metropol) somewhat 80-100 times during recent years, but never went from/to Stuttgart or Munich with this Kálmán Imre EN :) I value these ex-RZD or ex-LG cars, despite they sometimes tend to turn into rolling saunas, if the AC "leaves the chat" in summer. Actually, there are same age with CAF cars, built 1993-1994, but I consider the CAFs less comfortable, less sound-proof and already a bit worn out, as they ran just through a "moderate" refurbishment, where the most flaws were just painted over litereally. This car (008-6) was refurbished multiple times: at PESA Bydgoszcz 2005, then in Moscow 2011, and finally, at WSBA workshop after its buyout 2015, where also the jolly coloured foils were scattered everywhere. Unfortunately, ÖBB gradually raised the Nightjet prices 12/2023, and MÁV did the same. 79€ is still the entry price for Triple, but what I see more often, is 119€ or 139€ for a non-refund, which is not so attractive anymore. Flex is as high as 199€ for a Triple (!) - until 10.12.2023, just a couple weeks ago, Single (sic!) occupation as a Flex was 189€ worth, and with BahnCard/Railplus/Start even just 164€.
If you want to know what happened to your train Kalman Imre Stuttgart Hbf Budapest Keleti KkStb MAV it's actually combined with an Austrian sleeper train to Venice where is separated in Salzburg. On the Hauptstrecke München Augsburg section of the route this Nightjet will use the fast tracks between Augsburg Hbf & München Laim however when it comes to the new TSW4 route Hauptstrecke München Rosenheim Salzburg Hbf it's the entire line being used by the sleeper train. followed by KkStb MAV Hungarian Railways which used to be a subsidiary of the old Austria-Hungary railways KkStb ÖBB Schnellfahrstrecke Salzburg Hbf Wien Hbf Hauptstrecke Wien Hbf Budapest Keleti. From what I can see the hungarians are able to replace their old gdr VEB Volksgeiner Betrieb Waggonbau Bautzen carriages which at this point would have been ageing out
Man, you've travelled in the former Russian Railways sleeping car from the 90s not 80s. This car should still be able to cross onto the 1524mm gauge. EDIT: Please note the RIC code Nr. "62" for 1524mm capable cars... These cars were built between 1994-1995 by the Waggonbau Görlitz for the RZD but served for the Lithuanian and Slowakian Railways (LG and ŽSR). Actually, the MAV CAF coaches are not more modern. In fact they were manufactured at the same time in Zaragoza a Beasáin between 1994-1995 as UIC-Z1 type cars. Btw thanks for another wonderful trip report!
Not exactly, there are four ex-LG cars, the rest is ex-RZD, and they were never owned by Slovakian national railways, but by private company Wagon Service (WSBA), which sold them to MAV. ZSSK have their own cars of this series, bought and owned from very beginning.
The views are amazing and the train is so quiet. I'd like to try it myself... It stops in Salzburg for shunting, so a few hours? Nice - I live there and when I would want to go to Budapest it's a nice option to get the most time of the day going there by nighttrain. 13:20 - on monday (2 days ago) I've seen one of the new Railjets parked here in Salzburg. I think they get taken in service in a few months, maybe in december 2024? They're still in test mode for their licensing and that's taking most of the time...
I travelled on MÁV‘s night train from Budapest to Stuttgart a couple of weeks ago. It was a rough journey and it didn’t make me very happy. The conductor in my carriage was super unprofessional, being loud by talking very aggressively to his colleagues (even at night) and not answering the only question I had. I asked him until what time/station the toilet in the other carriage would be usable, as the toilet that was nearest to my cabin got locked prior to departure for (probably) being out of order, well it wasn’t answered. My cabin was relatively clean, but it seems like the toilets didn’t get cleaned very thoroughly in Budapest, even prior to departure they were quite dirty and had no soap and limited running water (of course it isn‘t MÁV‘s fault if the toilet is dirty after some time, some people are just not capable of using toilets without making it dirty). Though it is possible to wash your hands in your compartment, as there there was excellent water pressure and a bar soap provided (one per passenger). The ride quality is not something that‘s MÁV‘s fault, but especially in Hungary it was horrible. I had a bed in a sleeping compartment, which I shared with one stranger (I couldn’t book a private one). The middle bunk had no plug socket and my cable was too short to reach the upper socket (glad I brought a power bank). There were passport checks at the German border, again not MÁV‘s fault but annoying nevertheless. The breakfast was fine, but there was no pencil to tick your wished components, the other guy in the cabin and I had to ask for one once the conductor checked the tickets, he gave us one luckily. It maybe is important to mention that MÁV did start to run their newer carriages on their route to Stuttgart, and that’s great because in my opinion the old ones are quite filthy.
16:48 Intercountry máv trains are usually the best looking, but the local máv trains are famously poor, both in terms of cleannes and modernity. And the total time of máv delays in 2023 were 5 years and 8 months.
I took this train from Zürich same rolling stock but I found it quite aged and not very clean. Too bad they don’t give you the chance to book a full compartment. My wife and daughter were sent to one compartment for women and me to another with two guys, I thought since we were three we would be together. People were very friendly and one lady went with the guys so we could be together. The chocolate biscuit was so good I have tried to find it ever since, apparently is a traditional treat from the Hungarian railways everyone loves. Scenery through Austria into Switzerland is breathtaking. All in all a very nice trip.
They are sold in all Hungarian restaurant/buffet cars, but you can also find them in some shops, or in MAV's buffet at the Batthyanyi square S Bahn station.
Got an older train last year during my 2 week Balkan rail trip. Was still a great ride! Attendant was great and friendly and let me know when my (empty apartment from me) 4 couchette was definitely going to stay empty so I could switch to top bunk. Want to try this newer one now though! Breakfast was not as good on the old one haha
I travelled on such a Hungarian sleeping car too from Zürich to Budapest and it was very good, like your experience. One remarks though for complete information: a) I wouldn't be sure if the shower works if you catch a car which features a shower. b) On other lines MAV also operates older sleeping cars. The price is a lot cheaper then, as far as I know, but don't expect the same amount of comfort and style. As a railway enthusiast I like the old sleeping cars too. They are in good condition and do their job well plus the price is fair as well. But keep in mind: no air condition (you can open windows though), doesn't run as smooth, is just way older in general. So it's not all the same when taking a night train run by MAV. The modern cars are always on the lines to Stuttgart and Zürich. Regarding the stock on the other lines I am not sure. Nice video as always! Very informative and well done! Best regards.
That Stuttgart corridor is impressively long, and looks annoying to walk. Using Google Earth to measure the visible part of the corridor, it's about 350 meters long, twice as long as just walking straight through from the normal entrance to where the visible part ends.
It’s really annoying. Fingers crossed there are no further delays and we can finally get rid of these bridges and long walks in December 2025… I do like the little windows in the corridor wall though where you can get a sneak peak on the construction side process
I will say, I got scammed by Stuttgart Hbf. Thr construction made me walk around so much that I missed my connection from the S-Bahn to the train. And yes, a DB train left on time...
Back in 2016 I took the night train from Budapest to Munich (train splitting in Salzburg too, one half going to Munich, the other to Zurich and it was a nice experience, I also had a sleeping compartment to myself. Twas a bit noisy when they re-grouped the train at night in Salzburg, but I would definitely do it again. The Service was booked through öbb and they customer service was great, very helpful and nice
This looks to be quite good example of international night train. By combining cars with various destinations into single train, the service shouldn't colide with local traffic so much and it is generally more economical to run longer train at once rather than many short ones. This is the way night trains should be developed, I hope many similar services will be launched in following years in Central Europe.
Yeah I mean this is how all night trains were done back in the day and even several daytime long distance trains like those from Copenhagen that had carriages bound for places like Amsterdam, Zurich, Brussels, and more all on a single train and being split apart and joined up with other trains at various points. However as low cost airlines became prominent in the 1990's, these kinds of trains starting disappearing all over Europe as the rail was no longer the most affordable and reliable way to travel, but rather the once luxurious plane was. Its only in very recent years with more stringent taxation and regulation of air travel across Europe combined with greater incentives to boost rail travel that have spurred a small but steady rennaisance for trains. Services like the one in the video are more so a relic of the trains of the past that have just managed to survive the times despite everything. Likely due to the lower wages in the former East of Iron curtain countries.
Just re-watching this as I'm planning the reverse trip in March 2025 as part of an Interrail trip (assuming I can get the tickets sorted). Hopefully a single sleeper, the cabins look good.
i always travel with trains back home. i like trains more then planes and i take Railjet from Munich to Budapest Keleti and then take The Crown to Brasso
This was an interesting review as I already took the train multiple times ☺ Just one note: you were traveling in a DWA sleeper (my favorite), which were made in the mid-90s but purchased by MÁV recently. The CAF sleepers were made directly for MÁV also in the mid-90s.
It feels like Stuttgart 21 has been going on forever... this is Gerbelgiumny :) (for those who don't know, Brussels is transforming its premetro line 3 into a metro, plus an extension... transformation was supposed to end in 2023 and extension in 2030, now it's going to end only in 2030 or 2032, and extension not before 2035)
Hey, Hungarian here, have you seen the hungarian "InterCity" trains? on those the 2nd class car described by you are actually the first class cars and the second class cars aren't that great in those the window either ceased or doesn't close properly and the heater controls are horrible too they are either always on and can't be turned off or can't be turned on and they haven't been refurbished since like the 90's and they still have the old yellow-orange paint inside and they are filthy inside and out and they don't have curtains. but this was the cleanest MÁV train that I ever seen. but Im glad you had a good time with us
I commute with MÁV on the daily and the trains are... okay? For I while I used to ride a train hauled by MÁV's V43 type (nicknamed "Szili") and those locos and cars were *OLD*. Not very clean and they were really showing their age. MÁV refurbished quite a few cars that got attached to the train I usually rode to work and back. Their main suburban lines are now operated with Stadler FLIRTs, and those are more clean but those are starting to show their age as well. Also some trains suffer from poor maintenance and I have experienced that some trains were in operation with only the air brakes, and they were used as service brakes instead of the other brake systems.
Tu devrais essayer l' "Istria" de Budapest à Rijeka ou le "Corona" de Budapest à Brasov avec les anciennes voitures lit Gorlitz des MAV, c'est je pense vraiment mes deux meilleures expériences en train de nuit
They slowly improve the quality. Sadly the goverment still prefer the roads instied of rails. I travel every time with this train, never tried the sleeping car tho, only the 2nd and 1st class (i'm traveling from mid Austria). Thanks for the great video!
the cars are good because MAV started refurbishing old ones, and getting new models to replace the very old soviet era ones only a couple years ago. And they also started to rebuild the rails themselves. Before that, every train was very noisy, rattling and clacking all over the place.
As a hungarian: international trains rarely reflect the local conditions. We have some really nice wagons, yet even those trains are late quite often, and the farther you go from urban areas, the more disappointing conditions you meet. There are some truly bad lines. Try once a Bzmot, in north-eastern hungary, thats a culinary experience :D
100%, the north-eastern part is really bad, half of the trains are late and between smaller cities the rails are just hideous. Last time i was going with a Bzmot it was really slow, 40 km/h. There's a video about one of these, a guy in a snail costume runs faster than the train😅😅.
Really ?! Because I took the south east part 2y ago and before that and it can't be worse. Great until Cegled, normal kecskemet. Try taking this east line to Baja. 2y ago I sat 3 hours from Kecskemet or halas in an old russian two car unit that was so loud that my Airpods Pro noise cancelling barely lowered the noise and it was 31C . Airport to Baja would be best this way as it goes by it, otherwise have to get over to Deli which also takes too long.
When i was traveling from budapest to bucharest last summer on the euronight, the sleepingcar attendant closed all sleepingcars individually so that only people in the car could use it.
These "Russians" are definitely amazing cars! Very quiet and comfortable, with amazing air conditioning. Also the corridor is heated/air conditioned, and the toilets are connected directly to it, not to the vestibule. These details just show tha they were made for passengers' comfort in extreme temperatures in Russia. Also they are robust and rarely break down. Took the Budapest - Berlin Euronight last summer and got another Russian sleeper, but beware: not all of them have electric outlets by every bed. I think the difference is if the car was formerly owned by Lithuanian or Russian railways. Two years ago I also took the Slovakian EN to Split in one of their Russian sleepers. Although it was boiling 30+ degrees outside when we arrived, the A/C was working really perfectly and we actually had no idea of the heat until we disembarked. I think from the technical point of view, they are definitely better than CAF ones.
re. the electric outlets, it depends. 62 71-90 001 to 004 are ex-LG and had just one "shaving" socket per compartment (in the mirror shelf) until recently. But last year 001 came out withe a fresh REV, where two sockets nearby the reading lamps were added, I guess, that will be the standard for them all. 002...004 are still in almost original state from 1994 and way not too bad for this age, mainly the windows became dull. 005...009 are ex-RZD and were slightly revamped already by WSBA (foiled walls and doors etc.) around 2015, they got 2 combined 230V/USB sockets spent per compartment.
Do you know who made your sleeping car without shower? Was this a Soviet era car that MAV had and refurbished? or did MAV buy cars from western countries such as from DB and refubished it?
"Everything was working and spotlessly clean"
Wow, that's a first from MÁV.
As expected, trains that go outside the border are not even nearly representative of the general state of MÁV trains used for in- country travel.
It isn't just MÁV's fault that people love to leave their mess behind.
You have no idea what kind of sh*t people are able to make on trains. You should talk to the cleaning staff.
@@JozseffirstGamingchannel for real, I live next to Ferihegy airport and I get on old trains that come and go from there that are the 40yo, never cleaned, windows so dirty the screen is yellow - quality kind.
@@JozseffirstGamingchannelI frequently travel between Hungary and Austria, sometimes by MÁV, they're just as trash there.
Valaki tud dicsérni is, nem csak savazni.
Oh sweet MÁV. The reason I'm late every Monday from my classes! :D
Nem késel te sehonnan. Nem is jársz vonattal, csak nyomod a telex444hvg amerikai propagandát.
mehetsz taxival... a MÁV meg bekaphatja
HUNGARIAN: Győr is wonderful city, I live there... but our train station at here looks like Mordor! Need to be renovated!
What is beyond my understanding that when the rails to Vienna were reconstructed not a single railway station was refitted...this is ridiculous that almost all stations on one of our most important routes in the country (Tatabanya, Komarom, Gyor etc) are all in a terrible state of repair
Yes, and from Austria when the train goes to the Keleti Station in Budapest it cross áll the ghetto quarter. Horrible look to the foreihners who arrive first to the country , they think áll Hungary is a carbage. In East Hungary have much friendlier stations renovated and with flowers. I really dont undestand why the government not put effort to look the stations arts like our Bridgestone in Budapest with releives , colums , small tatues dekorations and should made of nice natural materials what the hungarians use to their homes!
@@zalapeter Look bad but I more upset of levels where I can hardly reach the first step of the train and trying to load or unload a heavy suitcase, or logging it underground and then back up to the platform and even locations where they have an elevator (ferihegy) it never works. High overpass to up and then down. So never mind the looks in my opinion.
in hungary almost nobody use trains only fo cargo. most family have a two cara and we have a dense highway network and also a long range busses on it what is way faster than trains and more confortable.
@@makoado6010 Oh boy. where do I start. yes, lot of cars in Hungary and lot of crazy drives and accidents. Bad roads , stickers, high gas prices. Busses, I took a Pest - Baja a few years ago, hot (it was summer) dirty , but so dirty that reminded me of the soc times. Yes trains only go to some places so it's only used there while busses are available to everywhere basically. Took the train (kind of local train) Cegled - Ferihegy. Nice clean quiet. Maybe just I got a lucky train, but I would say much cheaper and easier than anything else from there!
I too, prefer the captions. Love the videos when I can read the text. I read much more efficiently than I can hear. Cheers 🥂😁
This night train is top 3 in Europe in my opinion...🤩
And i like you brought back the subtitles. It's more relaxing.
Superb trip review! Really enjoyed it, thanks for sharing it with us. I am also really happy that you had a great time with MAV! I believe they have great potential with so many eager, smart people working there, it’s just that the government likes to take them n MAV for granted, making them work with very little. As for the crew telling you not to film….we have a few of those. I actually reported one of the rude ones before. We have a few “rotten apples” in the basket but from my experience the majority are wonderful people. Safe travels and thanks again!
In case of CAF in Hungary, so, they have a very good history here, as they also, outside of MAV Start carriages, produced Urboses for Budapest (including longest trams in the world, being 56 meters long) and Debrecen, and, since 2018, Solaris is also a part of CAF, so that's why there's saying "Pole, Hungarian brothers be...".
I didn't know that Solaris is a part of CAF, and we have Solaris trolleybuses in Budapest too😀
The Polish-Hungarian saying two good friends is much older.
In several cases, Poland had a king of Hungarian origin, and in many cases the two peoples helped each other. There is almost a brotherly relationship, even if there are arguments. Show me a family where there was never an argument.
By the way, we only refer to CAF cars as "cafka". It's a play on words. Cafka means bitch.
Just an FYI the longest river in Europe is the Volga. The Danube is the second longest.
Exactly.
@Simply Railway -Please pay attention and do research when providing info, whether geographical, historical, etc. :)
Bellevideohenri😊
I took this train back in the day when it was running from Munich in 2014. It was super comfortable. I woke up in Hungary and it was so beautiful watching scenery outside whilst having breakfast in bed.
I have travelled on a MAV sleeper about 5 times now including two return trips between Budapest and Split. It was really superb, made totally by having an old style dining car on board. I had a full dinner and then in the morning a cooked breakfast before arriving in Split. I know having a dining car is very rare but it was busy for much of its journey and the dining car crew and sleeping car attendants didn’t have a very long rest. The sleeping cars were really good indeed with comfy beds and really great air conditioning as you say. Really great!
Good that you tried the Hungarian sleeper train, hope you tried others as well :) On the showers on the CAF sleeper - i have never seen them working, MÁV-Start does not offer the shower service. Actually these Görlitz sleepers, which were acquired from Wagon Slovakia a few years ago in a better condition in my opinion than the CAF ones. The CAF ones may look nincer, but they have many smaller issues, like not locking doors, etc.
Viszontlátásra!
I love travelling on the Nightjet but with OeBB introducing their new tariff it is starting to get way too expensive. In the first week of January, I booked a comfort deluxe sleeping compartment for two to travel in June from Amsterdam to Innsbruck - the cost was €628! Single occupation of the same compartment was in excess of €1000. These costs are excessive, especially when you know you are travelling in 30-year old coaches which have not been refurbished.
Agreed with you! However I made my own research and I've never seen any prices above 700€ for a single occupancy sleeper. Even on the busiest routes
There was an error with the dynamic pricing system when it launched wich has been fixed. It's still expensive but not as much.
I found almost exactly the same thing when I looked at going from Innsbruck to Amsterdam, it was over 600EUR for single occupancy. Crazy prices which I will never entertain.
@@bigben5051 That is absolute madness! You could fly or even drive for cheaper! I live in Sweden and my boyfriend lives in Netherlands and I could get a 2 way flight between Gothenburg and Amsterdam for less than 400 Euro if finding the good deals (and even flights have gotten a lot more expensive with the pandemic as many low cost lines have discontinued many of their routes)
As a Hungarian it's great to see an outside perspective. Next time you travel with MÁV you should definitely try a Premium seat car. It has leather recliner seats and a free hot beverage included. Also at the other end of the car there is a buffet you can get snacks or simple hot food like pies. I think it's really cool. I really enjoy it when I travel from Budapest to the countryside.
Thanks for reintroducing the subtitles! Much more enjoyable! 😊
Very good video. I love this subtitles video, with the off voice introduction and the tour in the train station. Good job!
Nice to see that rail freight is apparently doing well in Hungary.
Those trains do look absolutely amazing and very clean. Very nice 😊
Great trip. I don't know how many train attendant onboard this train, but since this train running to Budapest from three different departures cities, I think there's more than one train attendant onboard, and looks like the attendant at Zurich departure is stricter than others. Overall nice train, and yeah nice livery to be fair.
In the last millennium I used to travel from Budapest to Karlsruhe on the train during the night in a sleeping car. It was a pretty good way to travel. Slept through the night, arrived pretty fresh, went to work, no time wasted.
I don't understand why the attendant asked you to stop filming. They certainly have nothing to be ashamed of. That train looks superb.
I think it is because if they do a small unintentional mistake and it is taped, they might lose their job.
They just want to avoid extra trouble. And also, the other passenngers have the right not to be filmed by a fellow one
there might be rules banning rail photography (like in poland for example)
Luckily there are no such rules in Hungary, banning rail photography. There are some railwayman who likes to forbid photography on their own, mostly because the do something bad. For instance that guy should not really closed that corridor.
GDPR.
It's because people have been fired or punished because they've been recorded doing something. Sometimes rightfully, sometimes not.
Your cabin looks much like the one I had 24 years ago on my first night train from Munich to Budapest. Great video! Brings back some good memories
There should be attached also part Stuttgart - Rijeka that splits in Ljubljana. At least it existed in 2022 and 2023 (Croatian seating and couchette car). ;)
I took this train this autumn, but it was only one sleeping car, so i‘m pretty sure it still exists😅
Is this section also consisting of SŽ carriages or only the HŽ ones?
@@igorsiuda8108 only HŽ
Probably to protect their privacy. Not everyone likes to be filmed.
wrong comment buddy@@Nadia1989
Comfortable, clean and nice accomodations. I'm 6ft2in tall and could only use the lower bed. Thanks Thibault💚👌👌
Uh, Kálmán Imre... I still have PTDS about it. During 2022 summer MÁV decided to swap (or maybe ÖBB asked) a car from the middle of the assembly in the last minute, they started to replace it, but they didn't removed the passengers from the cars to minimize the late, but all cars become hot during the reassembly (it was around 21:00 but still over 30°C, it was a super hot week, and obviously the cars ran on battery during the reassembly without AC). Somebody kicked out a window, other people have get off the train on the assembly area, etc. Also the ÖBB train broke down too so we got an another MÁV train. So instead of 20:40 we started around 04:00 and only travelled until Hegyeshalom because the ÖBB train driver didn't waited our line - I guess it's workday was ended and ÖBB didn't provided a replacement driver. So we had to switch to a small regional train until Vienna (you can guess how the train was looked after the whole international train joined to the regular commuters...) and eventually we reached Münich with an early Railjet from Keleti... I know there was several serious fuckups and this kind of events which was ended in the press are rare, but still.
Also about the sleeping car: I had a ride once in similar car but to Tranylvania also on top level. That cutout in the corner is super annoying. I'm also around 187, I hate that my legs had to hanging down in that cutout. I don't understand why it is necessary I don't see the added value that the top bed can be tilt up.Also I found that newer MÁV couchette cars have a slightly longer bed (maybe with 1-2 cm), which makes them a slightly bit comfortable. But otherwise they're a good cars and usually I didn't had any complain about the quality of the service. Maybe one thing: for me the pillows are too soft I usually ask for an extra blanket using below the pillow. (I always got it, wasn't any problem about that.) But I prefer hard pillows so it's completely personal thing.
ptsd*
Yeah, it was easy to see in the video that the pillow was almost nothing. He was way to nice about the train in this video to compare it to the nightjet.
@@IThinkICare I don't think that he was too nice. They're not a bad cars. And about the pillows: my GF use a pillows like this. Also she prefer more softer beds. I prefer hard ones.
Another one to add to my bucket list , great post
Excellent video, sir. It's amazing to see how extensive and well-developed your railway network is. Truly impressive. I'm from Saudi Arabia, and we also have a bullet train here, but it's only 450 km long.
I like it a lot more when you have captions, and all you hear is the sounds from the environment and the train. Feels a lot more cozy is my opinion, and takes me back to when I was a child and traveled a lot on trains.
15:35 The CAF coaches were made for MÁV in 1994 🙂 And refurbished between 2018-2021.
Thanks for share! Really good video! I will try soon!
Well, I know this train. I travelled on Budapest-Stuttgart on November 30th. It was surprisingly good. Even though I paid 150 EUR for one way, I was sharing the sleeping compartment with another person. The best part is that breakfast is included in the fare, an a-la-carte one, you can select up to 6 items.
If you take the equasion price/quality into account, I would not call Nightjet Europe's best anymore. Single sleepers just are not possible under 420/450 euro. I will return to their service once the prices drop. For the service shown here you pay about 180 euro, the part for Zagreb you pay 225 euro and for Venice (the Nightjet part) you pay 450 euro.
I always like to arrive to Budapest-Keleti, the main hall is architectural eye candy
well, as a hungarian, I can tell that trains that go abroad are usually the best looking and maintained trains of the fleet, aslo, saying that it's modern.... eehh, well we still have hundreds of engines that are 40+ years old in regular service and genuenly have delays all the time.
Thanks, it was a fun to watch! I used another connection to Germany (EN Metropol) somewhat 80-100 times during recent years, but never went from/to Stuttgart or Munich with this Kálmán Imre EN :) I value these ex-RZD or ex-LG cars, despite they sometimes tend to turn into rolling saunas, if the AC "leaves the chat" in summer. Actually, there are same age with CAF cars, built 1993-1994, but I consider the CAFs less comfortable, less sound-proof and already a bit worn out, as they ran just through a "moderate" refurbishment, where the most flaws were just painted over litereally.
This car (008-6) was refurbished multiple times: at PESA Bydgoszcz 2005, then in Moscow 2011, and finally, at WSBA workshop after its buyout 2015, where also the jolly coloured foils were scattered everywhere.
Unfortunately, ÖBB gradually raised the Nightjet prices 12/2023, and MÁV did the same. 79€ is still the entry price for Triple, but what I see more often, is 119€ or 139€ for a non-refund, which is not so attractive anymore. Flex is as high as 199€ for a Triple (!) - until 10.12.2023, just a couple weeks ago, Single (sic!) occupation as a Flex was 189€ worth, and with BahnCard/Railplus/Start even just 164€.
Another great video, thank you!!
19:52, le plus long fleuve d'Europe n'est pas le Danube mais la Volga.
Another wonderful video. Thanks. Safe travels.
Great video !!
I am glad to hear you liked our night train. This is one of the best indeed and the CAF Sleeping car is even better.
I hope you enjoyed Budapest.
If you want to know what happened to your train Kalman Imre Stuttgart Hbf Budapest Keleti KkStb MAV it's actually combined with an Austrian sleeper train to Venice where is separated in Salzburg. On the Hauptstrecke München Augsburg section of the route this Nightjet will use the fast tracks between Augsburg Hbf & München Laim however when it comes to the new TSW4 route Hauptstrecke München Rosenheim Salzburg Hbf it's the entire line being used by the sleeper train. followed by KkStb MAV Hungarian Railways which used to be a subsidiary of the old Austria-Hungary railways KkStb ÖBB Schnellfahrstrecke Salzburg Hbf Wien Hbf Hauptstrecke Wien Hbf Budapest Keleti. From what I can see the hungarians are able to replace their old gdr VEB Volksgeiner Betrieb Waggonbau Bautzen carriages which at this point would have been ageing out
4:09 Thats the IC 2 (Intercity), the newer version of the IC, the big brother of the ICE (Intercity Express)
Man, you've travelled in the former Russian Railways sleeping car from the 90s not 80s. This car should still be able to cross onto the 1524mm gauge. EDIT: Please note the RIC code Nr. "62" for 1524mm capable cars... These cars were built between 1994-1995 by the Waggonbau Görlitz for the RZD but served for the Lithuanian and Slowakian Railways (LG and ŽSR). Actually, the MAV CAF coaches are not more modern. In fact they were manufactured at the same time in Zaragoza a Beasáin between 1994-1995 as UIC-Z1 type cars. Btw thanks for another wonderful trip report!
Not exactly, there are four ex-LG cars, the rest is ex-RZD, and they were never owned by Slovakian national railways, but by private company Wagon Service (WSBA), which sold them to MAV.
ZSSK have their own cars of this series, bought and owned from very beginning.
OK, could be. Thx for bringing more details but these are definitely not 80s coaches.
Ah c'est tellement mieux ces formats de vidéo 🥰
Merci :)
The views are amazing and the train is so quiet. I'd like to try it myself... It stops in Salzburg for shunting, so a few hours? Nice - I live there and when I would want to go to Budapest it's a nice option to get the most time of the day going there by nighttrain.
13:20 - on monday (2 days ago) I've seen one of the new Railjets parked here in Salzburg. I think they get taken in service in a few months, maybe in december 2024? They're still in test mode for their licensing and that's taking most of the time...
I travelled on MÁV‘s night train from Budapest to Stuttgart a couple of weeks ago. It was a rough journey and it didn’t make me very happy. The conductor in my carriage was super unprofessional, being loud by talking very aggressively to his colleagues (even at night) and not answering the only question I had. I asked him until what time/station the toilet in the other carriage would be usable, as the toilet that was nearest to my cabin got locked prior to departure for (probably) being out of order, well it wasn’t answered. My cabin was relatively clean, but it seems like the toilets didn’t get cleaned very thoroughly in Budapest, even prior to departure they were quite dirty and had no soap and limited running water (of course it isn‘t MÁV‘s fault if the toilet is dirty after some time, some people are just not capable of using toilets without making it dirty). Though it is possible to wash your hands in your compartment, as there there was excellent water pressure and a bar soap provided (one per passenger). The ride quality is not something that‘s MÁV‘s fault, but especially in Hungary it was horrible. I had a bed in a sleeping compartment, which I shared with one stranger (I couldn’t book a private one). The middle bunk had no plug socket and my cable was too short to reach the upper socket (glad I brought a power bank). There were passport checks at the German border, again not MÁV‘s fault but annoying nevertheless. The breakfast was fine, but there was no pencil to tick your wished components, the other guy in the cabin and I had to ask for one once the conductor checked the tickets, he gave us one luckily. It maybe is important to mention that MÁV did start to run their newer carriages on their route to Stuttgart, and that’s great because in my opinion the old ones are quite filthy.
I have actually sat on that train but I was traveling from Budapest to Zurich so the train was divided at Salzburg
16:48 Intercountry máv trains are usually the best looking, but the local máv trains are famously poor, both in terms of cleannes and modernity. And the total time of máv delays in 2023 were 5 years and 8 months.
I took this train from Zürich same rolling stock but I found it quite aged and not very clean. Too bad they don’t give you the chance to book a full compartment. My wife and daughter were sent to one compartment for women and me to another with two guys, I thought since we were three we would be together. People were very friendly and one lady went with the guys so we could be together. The chocolate biscuit was so good I have tried to find it ever since, apparently is a traditional treat from the Hungarian railways everyone loves. Scenery through Austria into Switzerland is breathtaking. All in all a very nice trip.
They are sold in all Hungarian restaurant/buffet cars, but you can also find them in some shops, or in MAV's buffet at the Batthyanyi square S Bahn station.
Got an older train last year during my 2 week Balkan rail trip. Was still a great ride! Attendant was great and friendly and let me know when my (empty apartment from me) 4 couchette was definitely going to stay empty so I could switch to top bunk. Want to try this newer one now though! Breakfast was not as good on the old one haha
So nice! I am tempted to go to Europe!
I travelled on such a Hungarian sleeping car too from Zürich to Budapest and it was very good, like your experience.
One remarks though for complete information:
a) I wouldn't be sure if the shower works if you catch a car which features a shower.
b) On other lines MAV also operates older sleeping cars. The price is a lot cheaper then, as far as I know, but don't expect the same amount of comfort and style. As a railway enthusiast I like the old sleeping cars too. They are in good condition and do their job well plus the price is fair as well. But keep in mind: no air condition (you can open windows though), doesn't run as smooth, is just way older in general. So it's not all the same when taking a night train run by MAV.
The modern cars are always on the lines to Stuttgart and Zürich.
Regarding the stock on the other lines I am not sure.
Nice video as always! Very informative and well done!
Best regards.
That Stuttgart corridor is impressively long, and looks annoying to walk. Using Google Earth to measure the visible part of the corridor, it's about 350 meters long, twice as long as just walking straight through from the normal entrance to where the visible part ends.
Yeah it really sucks.
It’s really annoying. Fingers crossed there are no further delays and we can finally get rid of these bridges and long walks in December 2025… I do like the little windows in the corridor wall though where you can get a sneak peak on the construction side process
I think the Volga is longer than the Danube.
I will say, I got scammed by Stuttgart Hbf. Thr construction made me walk around so much that I missed my connection from the S-Bahn to the train. And yes, a DB train left on time...
Back in 2016 I took the night train from Budapest to Munich (train splitting in Salzburg too, one half going to Munich, the other to Zurich and it was a nice experience, I also had a sleeping compartment to myself. Twas a bit noisy when they re-grouped the train at night in Salzburg, but I would definitely do it again. The Service was booked through öbb and they customer service was great, very helpful and nice
Welcome to Budapest my friend
Nightjet might be the best aside from Finnish night trains! These are amazing 🤩
This looks to be quite good example of international night train. By combining cars with various destinations into single train, the service shouldn't colide with local traffic so much and it is generally more economical to run longer train at once rather than many short ones. This is the way night trains should be developed, I hope many similar services will be launched in following years in Central Europe.
Yeah I mean this is how all night trains were done back in the day and even several daytime long distance trains like those from Copenhagen that had carriages bound for places like Amsterdam, Zurich, Brussels, and more all on a single train and being split apart and joined up with other trains at various points. However as low cost airlines became prominent in the 1990's, these kinds of trains starting disappearing all over Europe as the rail was no longer the most affordable and reliable way to travel, but rather the once luxurious plane was.
Its only in very recent years with more stringent taxation and regulation of air travel across Europe combined with greater incentives to boost rail travel that have spurred a small but steady rennaisance for trains. Services like the one in the video are more so a relic of the trains of the past that have just managed to survive the times despite everything. Likely due to the lower wages in the former East of Iron curtain countries.
In the caf seating compartments, you can also fold the seats if I’m not mistakin’
No, you can’t. The only foldable seats are in the few Gosa-Built Eurofima carriages, but these are very rarely go beyond Vienna.
16:40-16:48 MÁV's international trains are modern and clean, but in the heart of the country they are very old.
Nice Video
Just re-watching this as I'm planning the reverse trip in March 2025 as part of an Interrail trip (assuming I can get the tickets sorted). Hopefully a single sleeper, the cabins look good.
i always travel with trains back home. i like trains more then planes and i take Railjet from Munich to Budapest Keleti and then take The Crown to Brasso
These cabins look just like the older ones in Finland inside the "blue wagons"
В венецию из штутгарта я уже ездил, в париж тоже. Может как-нибудь в будапешт
13:49 Üdvözöljük Magyarországon.
They must have updated the cars since 2019. The one my son and I traveled in was clean but dated and only two bunks
This was an interesting review as I already took the train multiple times ☺
Just one note: you were traveling in a DWA sleeper (my favorite), which were made in the mid-90s but purchased by MÁV recently. The CAF sleepers were made directly for MÁV also in the mid-90s.
Thanks for the explanation! :-)
It feels like Stuttgart 21 has been going on forever... this is Gerbelgiumny :) (for those who don't know, Brussels is transforming its premetro line 3 into a metro, plus an extension... transformation was supposed to end in 2023 and extension in 2030, now it's going to end only in 2030 or 2032, and extension not before 2035)
Hey, Hungarian here, have you seen the hungarian "InterCity" trains? on those the 2nd class car described by you are actually the first class cars and the second class cars aren't that great in those the window either ceased or doesn't close properly and the heater controls are horrible too they are either always on and can't be turned off or can't be turned on and they haven't been refurbished since like the 90's and they still have the old yellow-orange paint inside and they are filthy inside and out and they don't have curtains. but this was the cleanest MÁV train that I ever seen. but Im glad you had a good time with us
I commute with MÁV on the daily and the trains are... okay?
For I while I used to ride a train hauled by MÁV's V43 type (nicknamed "Szili") and those locos and cars were *OLD*.
Not very clean and they were really showing their age.
MÁV refurbished quite a few cars that got attached to the train I usually rode to work and back.
Their main suburban lines are now operated with Stadler FLIRTs, and those are more clean but those are starting to show their age as well.
Also some trains suffer from poor maintenance and I have experienced that some trains were in operation with only the air brakes,
and they were used as service brakes instead of the other brake systems.
1:24 DB made me walk 6 minutes to the subway instead of the normal 2-3 minutes
Tu devrais essayer l' "Istria" de Budapest à Rijeka ou le "Corona" de Budapest à Brasov avec les anciennes voitures lit Gorlitz des MAV, c'est je pense vraiment mes deux meilleures expériences en train de nuit
Thank you ,Im hungarian👍
They slowly improve the quality. Sadly the goverment still prefer the roads instied of rails. I travel every time with this train, never tried the sleeping car tho, only the 2nd and 1st class (i'm traveling from mid Austria). Thanks for the great video!
All my experiences with Hungarian trains are good. They are usually as clean as this one.
You must be young.
Nice!😊Please bring the old text back for the entire video 😊🙏🏻
Traveling with MÁV will always be a nigthmare material for me. I would rather run to Stuttgart. With tied legs, in the winter, barefoot.
the cars are good because MAV started refurbishing old ones, and getting new models to replace the very old soviet era ones only a couple years ago. And they also started to rebuild the rails themselves. Before that, every train was very noisy, rattling and clacking all over the place.
I rode the train from Budapest to Vienna in 1990. Boy the train has changed.
'In Germany, you know in advance from which platform the train will depart... what time it will depart is a matter of conjecture.'
As a hungarian: international trains rarely reflect the local conditions. We have some really nice wagons, yet even those trains are late quite often, and the farther you go from urban areas, the more disappointing conditions you meet. There are some truly bad lines. Try once a Bzmot, in north-eastern hungary, thats a culinary experience :D
100%, the north-eastern part is really bad, half of the trains are late and between smaller cities the rails are just hideous. Last time i was going with a Bzmot it was really slow, 40 km/h.
There's a video about one of these, a guy in a snail costume runs faster than the train😅😅.
Really ?! Because I took the south east part 2y ago and before that and it can't be worse. Great until Cegled, normal kecskemet. Try taking this east line to Baja. 2y ago I sat 3 hours from Kecskemet or halas in an old russian two car unit that was so loud that my Airpods Pro noise cancelling barely lowered the noise and it was 31C . Airport to Baja would be best this way as it goes by it, otherwise have to get over to Deli which also takes too long.
Great channel but honestly I need CC throughout.
14:36 kurva szép látvány a győri állomás is. :D
As a hungarian myself, i think that MAV trains are nothing compared to the ones in italy, germany, and france
Toujours pas fini les travaux titanesques de la gare de Stuttgart ! mais ils durent depuis combien de décennies ??
"Johnny Laser" Express. 😎🤘
Nice journey. Lovely trains. Good logistics. Greetings from Ukraine.
How do you know when you crossed the border in between Austria and Hungary...? Most train stations are ugly.
FIÂT bogies. Very comfortable and quiet. Similar to SNCF Y32.
Boa tarde simplys lindo trein cama boa viagem
Don’t know if its still exist but hopefully you can do the Stuttgart-Zagreb EN route ❤
When i was traveling from budapest to bucharest last summer on the euronight, the sleepingcar attendant closed all sleepingcars individually so that only people in the car could use it.
These "Russians" are definitely amazing cars! Very quiet and comfortable, with amazing air conditioning. Also the corridor is heated/air conditioned, and the toilets are connected directly to it, not to the vestibule. These details just show tha they were made for passengers' comfort in extreme temperatures in Russia. Also they are robust and rarely break down.
Took the Budapest - Berlin Euronight last summer and got another Russian sleeper, but beware: not all of them have electric outlets by every bed. I think the difference is if the car was formerly owned by Lithuanian or Russian railways.
Two years ago I also took the Slovakian EN to Split in one of their Russian sleepers. Although it was boiling 30+ degrees outside when we arrived, the A/C was working really perfectly and we actually had no idea of the heat until we disembarked.
I think from the technical point of view, they are definitely better than CAF ones.
re. the electric outlets, it depends. 62 71-90 001 to 004 are ex-LG and had just one "shaving" socket per compartment (in the mirror shelf) until recently. But last year 001 came out withe a fresh REV, where two sockets nearby the reading lamps were added, I guess, that will be the standard for them all. 002...004 are still in almost original state from 1994 and way not too bad for this age, mainly the windows became dull.
005...009 are ex-RZD and were slightly revamped already by WSBA (foiled walls and doors etc.) around 2015, they got 2 combined 230V/USB sockets spent per compartment.
Its a nice Train
Do you know who made your sleeping car without shower? Was this a Soviet era car that MAV had and refurbished? or did MAV buy cars from western countries such as from DB and refubished it?
These cars were made by Waggonbau Görlitz for Russian railways. They are not Soviet era, as they were built in 90s.
Trenitalia is buying new night train wagon.
Amtrak overnight trains need to get a look at that spotless toilet!!!