The ''Lehár'' was an

express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes a small number of stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, allowing faster service than Local train, local trains that stop at most or all of the s ...

between

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary, and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria. Introduced in 1979, it was the first eastern European train to become a

EuroCity EuroCity, abbreviated as EC, is a cross-border train category within the European inter-city rail network. In contrast to trains allocated to the lower-level "IC" (InterCity) category, EC trains are international services that meet 20 criteri ...

service, Brunhouse (1989). in 1988. The train was operated by the

Hungarian State Railways Hungarian State Railways ( hu, Magyar Államvasutak, MÁV) is the Hungarian national railway company, with divisions "MÁV START Zrt." (passenger transport), "MÁV-Gépészet Zrt." (maintenance), "MÁV-Trakció Zrt." and "MÁV Cargo Zrt" (freig ...

(MÁV) and the

Austrian Federal Railways Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

(ÖBB). It was named after

Franz Lehár Franz Lehár ( ; hu, Lehár Ferenc ; 30 April 1870 – 24 October 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas, of which the most successful and best known is ''The Merry Widow'' (''Die lustige Witwe''). Life ...

(1870–1948), an Austro-Hungarian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. It was replaced by a

Railjet Railjet is a high-speed rail service in Europe operated by Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and Czech Railways (ČD). Branded as ''Railjet Express (RJX)'' for the fastest services and as ''Railjet (RJ)'' for services with additional stops, it wa ...

service in 2008.

History

The ''Lehár'' first ran in 1979. The following year, a trip on the train was featured in "Changing Trains", the final episode in Series 1 of '' Great Railway Journeys of the World'', a

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...

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. The "Changing Trains" trip, which was the last stage of a longer journey from Paris to Budapest, was also included in the book published to complement the series. Robson (1981), pp. 184–185. In the book,

Eric Robson Eric Bell Robson (born 31 December 1946) is a television broadcaster, author and documentary film maker who has lived for most of his life in Cumbria, where he has a sheep farm. For many years he was the main presenter of ''Brass Tacks''. Earl ...

, the presenter and author of "Changing Trains", described the ''Lehár'' as "slow at the best of times", and gave the following account of its border crossing at

Hegyeshalom Hegyeshalom (; german: Straß-Sommerein) is a village of approximately 3600 inhabitants in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, Hungary, on the border with Austria and less than 15 km from the border with Slovakia. History A charter given by Andrew I ...

: In May 1988, the ''Lehár'' was added to the EuroCity network. The time required for the border crossing was shortened to ten minutes, due to the introduction of dual-voltage locomotives that did not need to be changed at the border, and onboard passport and customs inspections. The overall travel time from Vienna to Budapest was reduced to just three hours. In 1996, the ''Lehár''s Budapest terminal was moved from Budapest Déli to Budapest Keleti. By 2004, an upgrade of the Hegyeshalom to Budapest line had reduced the train's whole trip to less than three hours each way, making it possible for travellers to make a one-day excursion from Vienna to Budapest and back. The border crossing time had been shortened to three minutes, with passport, visa and customs inspections performed on the train. In December 2008, the ''Lehár'' was replaced by a Railjet service. In the period between 2008 and 2010, railjet operated during the train schedule , Lehár received a new schedule and train number (EC 968/969 instead of EC 40/41). It was on hiatus from 2010 to 2014, and was restarted with the 2014-2015 schedule change. It was temporarily suspended from March 25 to June 30, 2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic . International trains restarted on July 1, 2020. From October 30, 2020, instead of EuroCity, an express train ran between Budapest and Hegyeshalom with the same number of trains until May 31, 2021.

Formation (consist)

As of 1989, the ''Lehár'' was a locomotive-hauled train with air-conditioned ÖBB first- and second-class cars, an MÁV first-class salon car and an MÁV dining car. By 2004, the formation had changed to a single MÁV first-class salon car, an MÁV restaurant car, and six ÖBB second-class compartment cars. Brunhouse (2004).

References

Notes

Bibliography

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External links