On February 27, 2026, at 7:00 am, a fully loaded train slowly departed from the Ferenc railway station in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, marking the official start of freight transportation on the Hungarian section of the Hungary Serbia railway.

The Hungarian Serbian Railway connects the Hungarian capital Budapest and the Serbian capital Belgrade, with a total length of approximately 158.6 kilometers in the Hungarian section, connecting Budapest and Clebio. The line officially broke ground in 2022 and adopts a mixed passenger and freight operation mode. It is a double track electrified railway with a designed maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour.

It is reported that before the full opening of the Hungary Serbia Railway, trains from Budapest to Belgrade would take 8 hours to travel. After the full line is completed, the travel time will be significantly reduced to about 3.5 hours. This north-south railway will closely connect the Central and Eastern European regions, strengthen the connectivity between Hungary and neighboring countries, greatly improve the travel conditions of residents along the line, and inject new vitality into the regional economic and social development. Keywords: interconnection, the Belt and Road, railway

The Hungarian section of the Hungary Serbia Railway was jointly constructed by the affiliated units of China Railway Corporation and the Hungarian subsidiaries. It is a landmark project for China Hungary to jointly build the the Belt and Road, and also a flagship project for cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries. This project has achieved the first successful docking between Chinese railway technology equipment and EU railway interconnection technical specifications, providing valuable experience and practical examples for Chinese railway technology to go global and participate in international standard setting.Editor/Gao Xue