Poland-Hungary Strategic Cooperation for Railways

Heads of PKP and MAV - Andrzej Wach and Gyula Gaal signed the first agreement on strategic bilateral cooperation on freight transport. The agreement was signed during a meeting of directors of rail companies from Slovakia, Czech Rep., Poland and Hungary held in Wysehrad in October.

Opening the rail freight market scheduled for 2007 creates new tasks and opportunities for CEE railways - Andrzej Wach said.

CEE railways representatives also discussed means of financing regional passenger services, common action in the scope of liberalization processes and coordination of works in EU institutions. Participants agreed that the most important issues for the moment are access fees to rail networks and engaging governments to take actions towards developing rail markets.

Gyula Gaal declared that he is interested in taking advantage of PKP's experience in company's reform as at the moment MAV is planning to separate infrastructure management from operations. Hungary spends four times more on MAV development per capita than Poland (28 vs 7 euro).

Source: Railway Market magazine