Snailing
Travelling to Romhany by the shunting freight train
13. May 2005. Vac - Diosjeno - Romhany - Diosjeno - Vac
Travelling
less than an hour from Budapest, you can find romantic vicinal railways
among the slopes of the Cserhat linking remote villages and small
industrial plants to the outer world. Cock-crow, spring scents, smiling
railwaymen - a surrealistic impression in the beginning of the 3rd
millennium... Coming from far it is charming, living there is rather a bit
sad... The maximum speed for freight trains on the entire Romhany
line is only 10 kph. The other singularity is the Balassagyarmat centered
traffic order. If the tile factory in Romhany orders raw materials from
Czechia, the trucks come via Sturovo - Budapest - Hatvan - Balassagyarmat -
Diosjeno in five different trains. Check it on the map, it forms a spiral.
Long, expensive and unreasonable. It's a miracle that shippers still
adhere to the railway. The other miracle is the Romhány line itself. In the
golden days all stations had at least one company needing the freight
services of the railway, freight trains ran twice a day. The shunting
freight train runs only three times a week, however among other vicinal
railways it still occupies a prominent place.
PS.: from Diosjeno to Romhany the passenger service was cancelled on 4 March
2007. The freight service ended in January 2009, most likely due to the fall
of the production caused by the economic crisis.
