Landslide closes line between Vác and Slovak border - line expected to be closed until mid-August. International trains are being diverted via Rajka - with delays.
Image: Taken from the Máv (Hungarian Railways) website shows the tracks covered by earth and stones after heavy rains on Thursday. This is on the Danube Bend, between Nagymaros and Szob.
I don't normally try to do news stories on the blog (no time), but as this may affect readers, and Mav has not issued anything on this in English,
UPDATE 28 July - it has now - see (in English)
https://www.mavcsoport.hu/en/mav-start/domestic-travels/june-20-schedule-international-trains-change-budapest-nyugati-szob-line
I thought I'd put this up. Thanks to Tom Chilton for alerting me to this.
UPDATE: OK, reading on a bit, international trains are being routed via the main line towards Vienna, and then to Rajka, in the far north west of Hungary, and on into Slovakia that way. Trains leave Nyugati according to the timetable, but the diversion introduces delays - it doesn't say what kind of delays (I'd guess 30-45 minutes, but that's a guess. EDIT - I was wrong, see update at end of this post. )
Rail replacement buses and boats (!) are taking local passengers around the gap in the railway caused by the landslide.
Here's some more news - I love the way Máv gives all these technical details about how "10,000 cubic meters of mud and stones (not quite sure what kőlavina means) poured onto the tracks" - as if more than 0.1% of passengers are interested in such detail.
Here is the part, in Hungarian, from the Máv website.
A csütörtök délutáni esőzés következtében 1700 méteres szakaszon, soha nem látott mennyiségű, 10 ezer köbméternyi sár- és kőlavina öntötte el a vasúti pályát Nagymaros és Szob között, a Dömösi átkelésnél. A MÁV szakemberei délelőtt felmérték a károkat, a MÁV FKG még ma éjjel megkezdi a helyreállítást.
However, it does say that the track has been damaged over 1,700 metres, so we can see why it may take some months to be restored. I'd guess that the overhead catenery (that's the wires what provide the electricity) has been brought down too in places, and maybe signalling damaged, and all that does take a lot of replacement and checking for safety.
It seems the main road on that side of the Danube, route 12, is also blocked.
UPDATE: 09.00 Sunday
Czech Railways seem more communicative regarding the delays - which they say are more in the region of 60 - 90 and sometimes up to 120 minutes. See
https://www.cd.cz/jizdni-rad/omezeni-provozu/mimoradnost/39411/