How do National Railways Make Their Money?

Disclaimer: This is the English translation of an article originally written in Hungarian detailing

my personal opinions and statistics about the Hungary Pass (national rail pass). Though this is

an article focused on Hungary, do keep in mind that certain aspects of how railways make their

money (for example through the sale of passes, like in Hungary) might also apply internationally.

Not long ago, we were visiting Hungary, and my parents bought me a Hungary Pass (national rail

pass). With a Hungarian Student’s ID the pass is 1890 Hungarian forints for one month, while for

everyone else it is 18900 forints (though, there are some programs with which you can get back a

rebate for the price - for example the “Hungarian Diaspora Scholarship”). For me, since I

travelled quite a lot on the train, a full price ticket made sense based on the following train lines I

traveled on, listed as round-trips (plus all of the BKK transit I took within Budapest):

Budapest → Komárom

Siófok → Balatonvilágos

Balatonvilágos → Balatonberény

Siófok → Székesfehérvár

Székesfehérvár → Velence

Velence → Martonvásár

Budapest → Esztergom

Budapest → Miskolc (InterCity train, +650 forint for a seat reservation one way)

Budapest (Kelenföld) → Budapest (Budatétény)

Budapest (Déli) → Budapest (Kelenföld)

Budapest (Kőbánya Kispest) → Budapest (Kelenföld)

(total prices for a next day ticket in August)

Without the pass, the total ticket prices would have totaled to 19,338 forints (on the MÁV

website), which is more than the price of the Hungary Pass. And perhaps the price of the pass is

even more enticing for those who travel more domestically for tourism, work or for other

reasons.

But still, how much do the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) make from the sales of these

passes? The Hungary Pass is usable on GYSEV, MÁV, VOLÁN and BKK routes that don’t require seat reservations, and in October, the MÁV Group sold

* 311,132 Hungary Passes,

* 613,397 County Passes,

* 982,661 railway seat reservations,

* 1988 bicycle passes,

* and 10,230 bicycle reservations...

...according to iho.hu.

Assuming that 20 percent of all passes sold were at the discounted price (since there is no exact

statistic for this, and roughly 20% of the population in under 18, according to the H.C.S.O.), we

can determine that the MÁV group made 4,821,923,736 HUF through national rail pass sales

only - a small, but still significant number in their yearly earnings. This is rather a lot

(14,268,622 USD, 19,681,540 CAD, 18,382,220 SGD/BND, 21,862,038 AUD, 104,935,235

HKD, 1,942,511,977 JPY, 101,867,961 RMB, 24,350,151 NZD, 49,681,679 AED) since the pass

only came into existence in May of 2023.

It is true that the Hungarian State Railways do not have the best reputation, though such a rail

pass is still useful for those who travel a lot. I like trains because they are safer than cars, they

require less maintenance, and they are cheaper for solo travel, and in my opinion the Hungary

Pass is well worth it if you travel often (even if the operator loses money in the long run from

your journeys).

For example: Germany and The Netherlands have similar options - the Deutschland-Ticket and

the OV-chipkaart (even if the latter is less similar in the sense of an unlimited monthly travel

pass, but it is still usable on almost all domestic transit routes). These options are hugely popular

in their respective countries, so it only goes to show a trend that could be spreading eastward.