History

The brief history of Hungarian electrification and VASÚTVILL Kft.

The test locomotive designed by Kandó Kálmán went on its first voyage on 1 October 1923, after which the Hungarian State Railways decided that the the first overhead line in the country would be built on the Budapest–Hegyeshalom railway line. On 12 September 1932, electric traction to Komárom started, built by a company with significant experience, Siemens. Hungarian technicians and physical workers participated in the work, who later performed the operation of the line.

Further electrification was not possible due to the country’s difficult economic situation and then World War II; after the World War II the primary task was to rebuild. After that, the continuation of the railway electrification received attention again. In order to carry out the construction tasks, the Hungarian State Railways established MÁV Villamos Felsővezeték Építésvezetőség (MÁV Electric Overhead Line Construction Management Department) on 1 October 1949 . This date is considered to be the birth of the Hungarian main-railway electric overhead line construction organization; the roots of today’s VASÚTVILL Kft. reach back here. György Szívák was assigned as Head of the Construction Management Department; there were 430–450 people under his management at this time.

The economic difficulties of the 1950s slowed down railway electrification, but finally the Budapest left-bank belt-line railway was completed, and on 20 August 1956, electrification began on the Budapest–Miskolc railway line on the section to Hatvan. The following years—in line with the economic capacity of the country—allowed only a modest electrification pace; this was the reason why electrification reached Miskolc only in 1962.

The historic period of railway electrification occurred in the years after 1962 when MÁV began intensive development. One of the defining elements of this was the electrification of railway lines; at the same time, licence was purchased for the modern V43 series electric locomotive and their manufacturing began. The DM type construction vehicles were introduced which made the construction work easier and made it possible to perform the electrification of an average of 50–60 km of railway lines annually.

1 October 1969 brought a fundamental organizational change in the life of the Construction Management Department, and it continued its work as an individual directorate, the MÁV Villamos Felsővezeték Építési Főnökségként (MÁV VFÉF) (MÁV Electric Overhead Line Construction Directorate).

In 1968 it became apparent that the capacity of VFÉF was insufficient to meet the construction tasks required, so negotiations were started with the similar company of Czechoslovakia, the company PragueElektrazace Zeleznic (EZ). The first work of EZ was the electrification of the Karcag–Püspökladány–Debrecen line, which was implemented in the so-called Czechoslovakian system based on the plans of the design company SUDOP.

The construction of the overhead line on the 160 km long two-track Szajol–Karcag–Debrecen–Nyíregyháza railway line was a huge achievement of the Directorate and was completed in 1970. There has never been a overhead line constructed on a two-track railway over 100 km in such a short time.

1971 is also of great importance in the history of the Directorate. In 1967, MÁV Tervező Intézet (MÁV Design Institute) started to developthenew overhead line system suitable for a nominal speed of 160 km/h (higher than earlier). The new system was first used on the Budapest–Szob railway line, and—with minor and major modifications—this system being built on our domestic railways. A fundamental technological was required also by the use of an open-line reinforced-concrete pole column made with prestressed steel wire fabricated with centrifugal process.

After the completion of the Szajol–Lökösháza line in 1974, in 1975, it was suggested that the use of high-speed overhead lines over station sidings was too expensive. For the speed of 40 km/h allowed here, the simple overhead line without catenary wire is perfectly suitable for this purpose. The related examinations were carried out with the help of the Directorate, and the system was introduced at the construction of the Budapest–Kelebia railway line and remained in use to this today.

We have to mention, as an outstanding achievement, the Győr–Sopron electrical overhead line built in 1987 for GySEV Rt., which was followed by the section between Sopron and Ebenfurth in 1988. Apart from the fact that it was the first line that was not electrified for MÁV, the bracket-beam system mounted on poles on a single side was first in greater volume here; this required a new, different technical solution from the Directorate.

At the time of the electrification of the GySEV line, the Szabadbattyán–Siófok line was built which, due to the domestic application ofthe2×25 kV system demanded the familiarization of new technical solutions from all our employees.

1992 brought about a fundamental change in the life of the Directorate; on 30 December 1992, MÁV Vasútvillamosító Kft. was founded as a single-member company, with 100%  MÁV ownership and 176 employees.

The national economic stagnation in the 1990s and the deterioration of the economic situation also affected railway electrification, and the decline in development resources significantly reduced the construction; as a result, in the 6 years between 1990 and 1995, only 132 km railway was electrified.

After several years of recession, development started again with the reconstruction of the Budapest–Hegyeshalom line and continued with the overhead line construction on the Somogyszob–Gyékényes line and Gyékényes–Murakeresztúr line and the opening of the Felsőzsolca–Hidasnémeti line in 1997. After that, as a result of a long negotiation series, in 1997, the electrification of several railway lines started in a concessionary form (Balatonszentgyörgy–Murakeresztúr, Székesfehérvár–Szombathely).

In the life of our company, 1998 brought another big change when MÁV decided to sell 49% of its ownership. This share was acquired by GySEV Rt. (19.5%), Elektrizace Zeleznic our sister company in Prague (19.5%), and as part of the employee shareholder program 10% ownership was bought by our employees.

2002 brought a new change in the ownership structure of the company; MÁV Rt. sold its remaining 51% share. EZ Praha has become the main owner of the company. From that point on, VASÚTVILL Kft. operates as company independent of MÁV .

Another major change was the expansion of the activity when; as of 1 January 2005, VASÚTVILL Ltd. carried out maintenance activities on the electrical overhead line equipment of the railway network of MÁV Rt. in the eastern and western regions of Hungary as part of a maintenance contract. The maintenance area was expanded to 24 sites, and the length of the maintained lines was 4,967 contact wire kilometre. The activity was taken back by MÁV Zrt. as of 1 January 2012.

January 2017 was another turning point in the life of the company, after a lengthy negotiations, Hungarian investors bought 100% of the Czech and Hungarian ownerships. Vasútvill Kft. has been operating since in its current management structure.