Western Railway Station (Budapest)
Layout
The station is a stub-end terminal, with the tracks exiting to the northeast. There are nine platforms serving seventeen tracks. There is a metro station beneath the railway station; buses and trams are accessed at street level.
History
The station was designed by Auguste de Serres and was built by the Eiffel Company. It was opened on 28 October 1877. It replaced another station, which was the terminus of Hungary's first railway line, the Pest–Vác line (constructed in 1846). This building was abolished in order to construct the Grand Boulevard.
The station got its name from the adjacent Western Square ('Nyugati tér'), a major intersection where Teréz körút (Theresia Boulevard), Szent István körút (Saint Stephen Boulevard), Váci út (Váci Avenue), and Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út (Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Avenue) converge. The square also serves as a transport hub with several bus routes, tram routes 4 and 6, and a station on M3 of the Budapest Metro.
Since 2007 Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) has operated regular services between the terminal and Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport Terminal 1, although Terminal 1 has been closed since 2012 and all departures and arrivals have been consolidated in Terminal 2A and 2B, which is 4 kilometers away.
Beside the terminal and partially above its open area there is the WestEnd City Center shopping mall. Inside the station is a McDonald's restaurant which has been described as the "most elegant" McDonald's in the world.
The music video for Gwen Stefani's 2008 single Early Winter was partly shot at Nyugati. Starting in May 2016 the key scenes of the movie Terminal were shot over 27 nights.
Certain parts of the historic terminal building have recently been renovated. More renovations and changes to the immediate surroundings of the building are planned based on plans by London-based architectural firm Grimshaw.
Services
As of the July 2023 timetable change, the following services stop at Budapest Nyugati:
- InterCity: services to Budapest Keleti (via Tokaj), Mukachevo, Szeged, and Záhony.
- EuroCity: services to Brno main, Terespol, and Hamburg-Altona.
- EuroNight: overnight service to Breclav.
- InterRegio: service to Debrecen.
: hourly service to Kecskemét.
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: frequent service to Szolnok.
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: frequent service to Szob.
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: frequent service to Vác.
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: frequent service to Esztergom.
References
- ^ "Budapest-Nyugati" (in Hungarian). MÁV Group. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
- ^ "Intelligence August 2007". Railway Gazette International. 1 August 2007.
- ^ Airport, Budapest. "Budapest Airport Closes Terminal 1". Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
- ^ "Nyugati Train Station | Budapest, Hungary Attractions". www.lonelyplanet.com. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
- ^ "This Is the World's Fanciest McDonald's". mic.com. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
- ^ "10+1 famous music videos shot in Hungary". Daily News Hungary. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
- ^ "Terminal (2018) - IMDb". IMDb.
- ^ "Main Entrance of Budapest Nyugati Station Back to Its Former Glory". Hungary Today. 22 December 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
- ^ "Grimshaw Selected to Design Budapest's New Nyugati Railway Station". ArchDaily. 30 March 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
- ^ "142 Budapest — Lajosmizse — Kecskemé" (PDF) (in Hungarian). MÁV Group. 17 March 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
- ^ "71 Budapest — Vácrátót — Vác" (PDF) (in Hungarian). MÁV Group. 17 June 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
- ^ "2 Budapest — Esztergom" (PDF) (in Hungarian). MÁV Group. 17 June 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
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