The Danube Bend Railway

This was built as the first stretch of the railway from Pest to Vienna. Since 1920 it has stopped at a border, 63 kilometres out of Budapest.

Hungary's first steam railway opened between Pest and Vác on 15 July 1846. The Palatine Joseph and his family rode the special train, which covered the 33.6 kilometres in 59 minutes, ten of them spent at Dunakeszi, and the poet Sándor Petőfi rode the line and wrote a poem about it, Vasúton — On the Railway. It was always meant to go further, and it did: along the north bank of the Danube, so that it never had to bridge the river, to Párkánynána in 1850 and Pozsony, today's Bratislava, in 1851. For seventy years this was the main line from Pest towards Vienna.

The Treaty of Trianon in 1920 gave most of it to Czechoslovakia. Hungary kept Budapest to Szob, where the Ipoly meets the Danube, and Szob became a frontier station. The traffic for Vienna moved to the line through Győr and Hegyeshalom, and the old main line became something else: Hungary's busiest suburban railway, carrying about 34,500 people a day in 2019, with double-deck trains every hour through the Danube Bend, the gorge where the river turns south between the Börzsöny and the Visegrád hills. The international trains to Bratislava and Prague still run over it, and stop on the way.

The trains leave from Budapest-Nyugati on the Grand Boulevard. Its iron train hall was designed by August de Serres for the Eiffel company of Paris and opened on 28 October 1877, on the site of the line's first terminus of 1846. Sit on the left: the river is on that side all the way.

Through the suburbs to Vác

For the first half hour the line runs north through Újpest, Dunakeszi and Göd, past housing estates, factories and gardens. This is the stretch where Kálmán Kandó tested his electric locomotives: from 1923 to 1928 a trial overhead wire at 15 kV, 50 Hz, ran from Nyugati to Dunakeszi-Alag. The Z70 trains run non-stop to Vác in 24 minutes; the G70 and S70 call at the suburban stations.

The Danube Bend

Beyond Vác the river comes alongside. The line runs on a shelf between the water and the Börzsöny hills, through Verőce and Kismaros, to Nagymaros-Visegrád, where the castle of Visegrád stands on its hill across the river and a ferry crosses to it. Past Nagymaros the bend tightens and the track runs along the steep foot of the Szent Mihály-hegy. Mud and rock came down onto the line here in June 2020, and again in June 2022, when it closed for two months; trains now pass slowly, and the halt at the old Dömös ferry crossing has not been served since June 2021.

At Zebegény the train crosses the seven-arch viaduct of 1850. Szob, a few minutes on, is the end of the domestic line: a border station beside the mouth of the Ipoly, with Slovakia on the other bank. The international trains run on to Štúrovo and Bratislava.

The locomotives and coaches

Most domestic trains are Stadler KISS double-deckers, MÁV class 815: forty six-car units, delivered from 2019 and in service from 2020. Some are FLIRT single-deckers, class 415, and some are push-pull sets hauled by a V43, the most numerous electric locomotive MÁV ever had — 379 built between 1963 and 1982, still about 200 at work in 2024, and called the Szili for its silicon rectifiers. The EuroCity and railjet trains to Prague are mostly hauled by Slovak class 350 or Czech class 380 locomotives, and since December 2025 have run with ČD's ComfortJet coaches.

Trains run every day and there is nothing to book: buy a ticket and board. Three kinds of domestic train share the line, each marked on the front: the Z70 runs non-stop to Vác and then calls everywhere to Szob; the G70 calls at the larger suburban stations; the S70 stops everywhere. Eight times a day a EuroCity or railjet to Bratislava and beyond also stops at Vác, Nagymaros-Visegrád and Szob.

Budapest-Nyugati to Szob — weekdays

Szob to Budapest-Nyugati — weekday afternoons

The Z70 takes 56 minutes from end to end, the EuroCity and railjet 52, the S70 1 hour 14. Zebegény is 49 minutes out on a Z70. On Saturdays there are G70s at 08:40, 09:40 and 10:40 as well, and the rest of the pattern is much the same.

As of October 2026, from MÁV's own journey planner, for Wednesday 21 and Saturday 24 October. Times change with the new timetable each December and with engineering work, which on this line can close stretches for weeks; check MÁV's journey planner (opens in a new tab) before you go.

The ferry to Visegrád

From Nagymaros-Visegrád it is a short walk down to the river, where a car ferry crosses to Visegrád. It leaves Nagymaros at 06:30 and then on the hour from 08:00 to 20:00, and Visegrád at 06:20 and at 45 past from 07:45 to 19:45 — see the operator's timetable (opens in a new tab), which it calls a guide only.

Buy from MÁV's website, a ticket machine or the ticket office at Nyugati, or from the MÁVPlusz app, which takes 15% off domestic point-to-point tickets; at a station with neither an office nor a machine you can buy on board without a surcharge. Inside Hungary the EuroCity and railjet cost the same as the stopping trains. A ticket for up to 100 kilometres is valid for four hours, long enough to stop off at Vác or Zebegény on the way.

MÁV lists children under 14 and anyone over 65 as travelling free on domestic trains, whatever their nationality. A ticket to Štúrovo or Bratislava is an international ticket and is priced separately. Full second-class fares from MÁV's own planner, October 2026.

An Interrail or Eurail pass covers the whole line. MÁV's regional trains need no reservation, and on the EuroCity and railjet trains a reservation is optional; a One Country Pass for Hungary covers them for a journey inside Hungary only, so not across the border to Štúrovo.

For this trip alone a pass is not worth buying: the single fare to Szob is 1,300 Ft, and under-14s and over-65s ride free anyway. It pays only if the Danube Bend is one day of a longer journey through Hungary or beyond.

Checked October 2026 against Interrail's table of railway companies (opens in a new tab) and MÁV's journey planner (opens in a new tab).

Vác is a stop on the way; Visegrád is a ferry ride across the river from Nagymaros; and Esztergom is the far side of the border, reached on the international trains from Szob.

The whole line is under an hour from Budapest, so most people ride it as a day out from the city. To wake up above the river, cross on the ferry and stay at Visegrád.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about The Danube Bend Railway. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.