Hungary quietly raises potential Chinese EMU order to 100 trains

Hungary appears to be weighing a significantly larger order of Chinese-built multiple units, with transport minister János Lázár saying earlier this month that talks are under way on a deal for 100 new Chinese motor trains, with a two-year horizon attached to making the plan a reality.

While Budapest’s interest in Chinese rolling stock has been on the table since last year, the latest remarks both raise the headline number and, for the first time, attach a concrete timeframe for realising the plan, even as no tender, contract value or vehicle specification has been published. In early December, Lázár was still talking publicly about around 70 Chinese multiple units for MÁV; tucked into a wider transport press briefing earlier this month, he lifted the figure to 100 — an increase of roughly 30 trains that lands in an election year where fleet renewal and performance have become politically charged.

The government has repeatedly framed the issue in terms of capacity. MÁV currently operates a fleet offering around 140,000 seats, while officials say demand projections point to a need for 200,000 seats within a decade. Delays, ageing vehicles, many of them 40 to 50 years old, and chronic shortages of serviceable rolling stock have kept rail firmly in the political spotlight. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that the numbers might increase.

What is known about the Chinese trains

Despite the headline figure, many key details of such a deal remain unresolved. The government has not specified the type of trains under discussion, whether the order would be split into batches, or how it would be financed or procured. There is also no indication yet of whether the purchase would be structured as a conventional tender, a government-to-government deal, or linked to wider industrial cooperation.

The most concrete reference point so far is CRRC’s double-deck ‘ZEMU’ (DDEMU), a Chinese-built EMU that underwent compatibility tests on the Hungarian network in summer 2025. The ZEMU is a 200 km/h double-deck EMU, roughly 158 metres long, with 571 seats and total capacity of around 1,280 passengers, built using lightweight aluminium and composite materials. While officials have not said whether any future order would involve double-deck stock, it remains the only Chinese EMU model publicly tested in Hungary to date.

MÁV presented the train as a ‘guest’ undergoing compatibility tests required for authorisation in Hungary. While Chinese-built rolling stock has appeared in Hungary in other contexts, the ZEMU runs were the first time MÁV publicly presented a Chinese passenger EMU’s operation on Hungarian lines as an authorisation-driven compatibility programme. Still, the tests took place without any procurement announcements, and in fact, very little was said about the EMUs in question.

Two years to finalise the deal?

As for a two-year horizon, it may sound long for simply agreeing a train purchase, but a 100-train Chinese EMU programme would face layers of legal, regulatory and political friction. Any procurement of that scale would be sensitive in an EU member state, involving a Chinese state-owned supplier at a time when Brussels is under pressure to tighten oversight of non-EU rail technology.

Beyond the mechanics of procurement and financing, the trains under discussion are not yet type-authorised for Hungary, and Budapest has not said whether it would pursue an open tender, a negotiated procedure or a government-to-government framework. At the same time, Europe’s rail supply industry is actively pushing the Commission and national authorities to use new cybersecurity and procurement powers to restrict what it calls “high-risk” third-country rail technology, a debate that has intensified as Chinese systems and rolling stock move closer to live deployment in the EU.

Chinese rail involvement already runs deep

Still, any move to scale up Chinese rolling stock procurement would build on Beijing’s existing footprint in Hungarian rail. The Budapest–Belgrade upgrade, a flagship Chinese-backed corridor, has seen Hungary spend some €2.1 billion on its 160 km section (largely financed via a China Exim Bank loan); Chinese contractors and systems suppliers were central to delivery, with the project’s delays linked in part to signalling integration and ETCS compliance for Chinese systems. Passenger services on Hungary’s section are now expected from mid-February 2026, pending a TÜV safety audit, with through trains to Serbia targeted for later in the spring. Once reopened, Chinese-built CRRC EMUs operated by Srbija Voz are expected to run into Hungary, meaning Chinese passenger stock will soon operate on Hungarian territory regardless of any MÁV purchase decision.

Meanwhile, CRRC has also signalled ambitions to expand manufacturing in Hungary, including a rolling stock production base covering locomotives and EMUs, with its Acemil partnership pointing to a target of at least 51% EU added value to align with EU procurement and trade constraints. For now, the mooted 100-train order remains political signalling rather than procurement reality. But set against the ZEMU trials, China’s role on the Budapest–Belgrade corridor, and the Hungarian government’s own capacity arithmetic, a bigger headline number of Chinese trains isn’t the biggest leap — especially when the contracts are still a long way off from being signed.