As previously indicated by the MÁV-Volán group: county and national passes can only be used on trains without a surcharge, so not on ICs, only certain carriages or sections may be an exception to this. As always in previous years, at Balaton, these exceptions will cease in this year’s pre- and main season, so that they can also serve passengers who choose the IC service, they said.
They also informed that Volánbusz also runs direct buses between Budapest and Lake Balaton a few times a day in both directions, for which the national pass is also valid. By bus you can reach the towns of Balatonkenese, Balatonalmádi, Balatonfüred, Tihany, Révfülöp, Keszthely, Hévíz on the northern shore of the lake, as well as Siófok, Balatonlelle, and Balatonboglár on the southern shore.
More than 90,000 people already have a national pass that allows them to travel throughout the country on trains and intercity buses. Thinking primarily of them, but also of county pass holders, the MÁV-Volán group has created a “Balaton” menu item on the orszagberlet.hu website, which specifically helps in planning travel with the new type of pass and providing preliminary information.
It was emphasized that the trains to Lake Balaton will be more frequent from the pre-season. From May 15, travel options from the capital have been expanded to the north coast with the Kék Hullám express train to Tapolcá, to Balatonfüred with the Vízipók InterRégio every two hours, and to Siófok, Fonyód and Balatonszentgyörgy with the South Coast InterRégio, which also runs every two hours. Starting from Saturday, on weekends and on holidays, the Jégmadár express, which became extremely popular last year, completes the transport options between the Déli pályaudvar and Balatonfüred, the Katica InterRégió, Szob, Vác and Fonyód, and makes public transport more attractive for those traveling to Lake Balaton. They added: the transport of pre-season trains from the Western Transdanubian region was also transformed.
According to the information, the state-of-the-art, air-conditioned KISS double-decker motor train runs between Szob and Fonyód under the name Jégmadár express train on weekends and holidays in the pre-season, providing a direct connection from the Danube Bend area.
