The ''Lehár'' is an

express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes few or no stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, providing faster service than local trains that stop at many or all of the stations along their ...

between

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary, and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

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

EuroCity EuroCity (EC) is an international Train categories in Europe, train category and brand for European inter-city rail, inter-city trains that cross international borders and meet criteria covering comfort, speed, food service, and cleanliness. E ...

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

Hungarian State Railways The Hungarian State Railways (, , formally MÁV Magyar Államvasutak Zártkörűen Működő Részvénytársaság (MÁV Zrt.). The full official name of the company is MÁV-csoport () now commonly known as MÁV) is the Hungary, Hungarian natio ...

(MÁV) and the

Austrian Federal Railways The Austrian Federal Railways ( , formally or () and formerly the or ''BBÖ'' ), now commonly known as ÖBB (), is the national railway company of Austria, and the administrator of Liechtenstein's railways. The ÖBB group i ...

(ÖBB), and is named after

Franz Lehár Franz Lehár ( ; ; 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 and career L ...

(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 def ...

. 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 category) for the fastest services and as ''Railjet'' (RJ) for services with additional s ...

service in 2008, but reinstated in 2014.

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 ''Great Railway Journeys'', originally titled ''Great Railway Journeys of the World'', is a recurring series of travel documentaries produced by BBC Television. The premise of each programme is that the presenter, typically a well-known figu ...

'', 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 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

travel documentary A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or web series, online series that describes travel in general or tourist attractions without recommending particular package deals or tour operators. A travelogue film is an early typ ...

. 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 husbandry, sheep farm. For many years he was the main presenter of Brass ...

, 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 (; ) is a village of roughly 3750 inhabitants in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, Hungary, on the border with Austria and less than 15 km from the border with Slovakia. Etymology The name of Hegyeshalom originates from the two Hungar ...

: 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