User:Ksanyi/Hungaria (train)

Hungaria EuroCity (og Hungária) is a Eurocity train between Budapest-Keleti Railway Station and Berlin-Hauptbahnhof currently operated by MÁV. It is currently numbered as EC 170-171, earlier it was EC 174-175, IEx 74/75, or Ex 154/155). It runs every day mainly with MÁV owned high speed rolling stocks.

History
Hungaria international express train is one of the oldest, still operating express train. Its first run between Budapest and Berlin via Prague was on 29 May 1960 with a diesel locomotive. It was the first train in the former Czechoslovakia which reached the 130 km/h speed.

During the 1970s it ran as an express train netween the capitals of Hungary and East Germany under train numbers Ex 154/155. Electric locomotives were introduced in this period. Capacity of this kind of locomotives just reached the necessary level.

There were further improvements in the 1980s. MÁV planned to introduce a high level, international rail service with other railway companies of the f[Eastern Block]]. Alliance was founded under the name Interexpress and with the membership of the Czechoslovakian ČSD, Polish PKP, Hungarian and East German DR. Contract was signed in 1986, one year before the establishment of the Western European EuroCity network. So in the timetable year of 1986 Hungaria became an Interexpress train with train numbers IEx 74/75. At this time train terminated at East-Berlin, at Berlin-Lichtenberg station the most important railway station of the town. During the next two years it had direct rolling stocks from and to Wien and in the summer period Malmö. During this period usually at Hungarian territories it used MÁV V63 rype of locomotives.

Interexpressnetwork was dissolved after the regime change in Eastern Europe, so Hungaria was operated out of this system’s scope.

Nowadays
Current system was implemented together with the EuroCity system in 1993. Its terminatioin in Hungary is Keleti Railway Station in Budapest. The train consist of 9 rolling stocks, of which 2 are first class, 6 second-class and 1 bistro train. All of them are provided by MÁV.

It is usually driven between Budapest and Prague by ZSR’s ŽSR 350 (Gorilla nicknamed) AC locomotive. In this way there is no need to change locomotive nor at the Hungaria-Slovakian, nor at the Czech-Slovak border. Between Prague and Dresden there is a ČSD 371 high speed AC locomotive at the face of the train. At last part of the route, between Drezden and Berlin there is usually a DB 101 high speed AC locomotive in use.