He said 800,000 tickets were sold last year for the 15 forestry railways in Hungary.

Existing services should be upgraded but there are also proposals that the number of small railways should be increased.

The overall cost of the project is Ft 857 million, of which the EU provided Ft 600 million.

The train could not leave the station as Democratic Coalition activists stood in front of it, while two others lay on the tracks and a few more held up a banner with the words “let them spend our money on education and health care instead of hobby trains”.

Székesfehérvár local councillor Judit Földi and Keszthely local councillor Viktória Kovács lay on the tracks.

After police officers forcibly removed the activists from the tracks the small train set off on its run with a 30-minute delay.

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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MTI photo: Máthé Zoltán