WHY RIGHT-WING POPULISTS HATE THE TRAIN (AND CIVILISATION)

by Nix Jeelvy

Keeping the trains running on time is a byword for good governance for a good reason. Train networks are complex systems which include lots of intersecting, path dependent and variable moving parts, employ large numbers of people and can provide enormous returns on investment which are not immediately visible to the eye. The state of a country’s rail network is often a good measure of that country’s government. Well governed countries have functioning railway networks which add to the national economy. Poorly governed countries have rail networks which are a burden and an embarrassment to the nation.

I am writing these words from a city with one of the best public transport systems in Europe, which is located in a country which has the worst train network in Europe. The city is Budapest, and the country is Hungary.

This is not my first visit to Budapest. I’ve been coming to this city for some time now, but this is my first time where I’m not staying in the city centre. Not to be feared, because thanks to the efficiency of the BKK (Budapest Public Transport), I am only two comfortable train rides away from anywhere I want to go. I hop on the suburban train (running every 7 minutes), which connects to the metro line (running every 5 minutes).

The four metro lines have amazing coverage. There’s rarely a place worth visiting which is more than a 15 minute walk away from a metro station, but even for those few, the city is criss-crossed with a veritable spider web of trams, streetcars and buses meaning that no part of it is inaccessible due to distance or remoteness.

The trains and buses are universally clean, safe, comfortable and on time. Some, especially the suburban lines, are showing their age, though this has not really disrupted service. Fare enforcement is thorough, but not overweening. Train conductors and BKK inspectors are likelier to be middle-aged women with stern looks rather than the burly men who usually enforce fare payment in my long-suffering homeland. Fare evasion seems to be rare, due to a sense of civic duty among travellers. As a general rule, taking the trains in Budapest is a pleasure I’ve been delighting in with childish glee for the past 2 weeks. I particularly enjoy changing metro lines and taking in the station architecture.

Considering all the praise I’ve given to the BKK, you’d imagine that at least some of this glitz and glamour would rub off on MAV, the Hungarian national rail company. If the Budapest public transit system can flow like goulash (which is a soup, not a stew), then surely some of that efficiency and glamour will rub off on MAV. And the answer is a rancorous “hell no!”

MAV is consistently rated as the worst rail carrier in the European Union. Whereas other rail carriers maintain statistics on late arrival percentages, MAV has better luck counting its on-time arrival percentage, which stands at an ignominious 32% (disregarding arrivals which are five or fewer minutes late), although this percentage also includes the Budapest suburban lines which are jointly run with the BKK, and in fact, given their penchant for arriving with Japanese precision, I suspect they’re predominantly BKK-run with MAV only figuring in the mix because the lines terminate outside the Budapest city limits.

Of course, true incompetence is rarely limited to numbers and statistics. Sometimes there’s simply no substitute for the visual horror of the MAV’s Frankentrains - trains composed of mismatched cars because the rolling stock is simply not there. Nor can a spreadsheet explain the sickening sound of a loose wood sleeper moving under the weight of a 100 kg man. Such horrors and more can be seen in this informative video.

It is rather notable that MAV manages to be one of the worst European rail carriers while operating under ideal geographic conditions. Hungary is notoriously flat, with wide open spaces which seem almost destined for rail transport. Its cities are well integrated into the network - Budapest’s three railway stations are also metro and tram hubs. Contrast this to the countries bracketing Hungary to the east and west. To the east lies Ukraine, where rail transport is reliable, comfortable and on time even under conditions of war. To the west is Austria, whose mountainous terrain has not deterred it from developing one of the finest rail transport networks in Europe.

Now, what is the cause of this discrepancy? It’s simple, really. Budapest is not Hungary. While Hungary is governed by world famous “illiberal democrat” Viktor Orban and his right wing populist Fidesz party, Budapest is run by a Green Party mayor and a Green-Social Democrat city council. The city of Budapest is run by civic-minded people who are accustomed to using the government to accomplish goals in the public interest. Hungary is run by degenerate criminals who consider state capacity inimical to their core ideological project, which is the ever greater enrichment of oligarchs.

As Americans are rapidly learning under their very own national populist federal government, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a right-wing populist to actually do something in the public interest. Fidesz has so completely neglected MAV in its 14 years of power precisely because investing in the railroad would mean growing the economy - providing much needed transport to both people and goods which would allow them greater and better division of labour.

When your goal is self-enrichment through graft and facilitation of a corrupt oligarchy, a railroad is precisely what you don’t want to build. It would entail spending public money for an investment that’d produce returns for the economy as a whole - a good so abstracted away from the private sphere that we can only call it "public." Stealing from a railway project, like Fidesz likes to do with public works generally, usually results in horrifying PR, such as Orban’s Serbian friend and fellow Chinese vassal Aleksandar Vućič suffered when a shoddily constructed rail station canopy crushed 14 people and kicked off a wave of massive, nationwide protests which continue to this very day.

Compare that to the relatively simple grift of building highways. The state gives the building contract to oligarchs, oligarchs steal the money, lay inferior asphalt and build a subpar road, and the consequence are increased traffic accidents, which can be safely ignored, as our society is as a general rule inured to road fatalities.

As an even bigger bonus, roads built with the shoddy, two layer Chinese-made asphalt preferred by Hungary’s oligarchs tend to warp after only two years, necessitating repair and rebuilding works which are another fortuitous occasion for graft. Externalise the costs, including the scandal, privatise the profits. What’s a corrupt gang of degenerate paedophiles (oh yeah, did I mention? Fidesz is also lousy with paedophiles) not to like?

Indeed, the very logic of right wing populism, which is pro-corruption, pro-oligarchy and as a general rule pro-crime and dysfunction goes against a well-functioning rail system. Rail systems require professionalism in the workforce, high levels of investment, foresight and strategic vision to function. Using them as patronage parks for party members or as a means of enriching your oligarch cronies results in horrifying rail accidents which cannot be readily tucked away from public eyes.

The benefits of a functioning rail system, whether national or urban are widely distributed. They give people of all ages the ability to access areas which would otherwise be out of their reach. This has some easy to understand economic benefits, as distance ceases to be a limitation to economic activity, without the need for ugly and expensive parking lots to accommodate the personal vehicles. Others are more difficult to quantify. How much better is a society where people read books while commuting on the train instead of listening to brainrot podcasts in the car?

The ability to conceive, however vaguely of these benefits seems to be a test not only of intelligence, but civic-mindedness and breadth of vision, three elements crucial to understanding and maybe even some day practicing good governance. Little wonder that the small minds of Fidesz and the even smaller minds of right wingers everywhere are so hostile to the train track as a technology.