Janos Lazar mentioned the M0, M44, M1, M7, M5, M6, M3, M30, M43, M85 and M86 motorways and highways as ones with a slushy or salty surface, but added that the motorway operator was using over 500 machines across the country to make roads accessible.

The minister said railway services were uninterrupted but delays of 15-20 minutes could be expected in the western parts of the country. He said the switches were being cleaned continuously, but "cleaning is slow because of continued snowfall and the efforts are focused on major hubs."

Coach services are delayed across the country, with buses running up to 60 minutes late, and bypassing some villages, the minister said.

Meanwhile, weather service HungaroMet issued a second-degree (orange) alert for several counties in the east, forecasting further snow until Thursday morning. Along the River Tisza, 10-20 cm more snow could be expected, and somewhat less in the central-eastern and southern parts of the country, the service said.

Daniel Mukics, the spokesman for the National Disaster Management Directorate (OKF), told a press conference that all state bodies were working at full capacity to mitigate the disruptions caused by the snow, and the operative board set up to manage the situation was asking local councils to do the same.

Attila Fulop, state secretary for care policy at the interior ministry, said a red alert had been declared from 8am on Wednesday, mandating all social institutions to take in homeless people in need.

Gergely Karacsony, the mayor of Budapest, said the city was working at full capacity to clear the snow from the roads, adding that public transport was being given the priority.

Citing this morning's report, Karacsony said in a post on Facebook that the main roads and bus lanes were all accessible. He said clogged switches were causing disruptions in certain places, but were being cleared. Everyone is doing their job with maximum effort," Karacsony said.

Lazar said on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon that "our teams are hard at work, with around a thousand people employed by the MAV Group directly involved in dealing with the snow situation, removing technical and physical obstacles caused by the snow, and preventing breakdowns".

He said they were on constant standby, with staff working through the night and early morning hours, having cleared a total of about 1,200 railway switches by Wednesday morning. Due to the intense snowfall, they had to return to many places several times during the night, he added.

Lazar said all of their vehicles had been in service, and more than 220 colleagues had been called in for extra duty at the passenger transport company.

In the capital region alone, 300 people worked during the day and 150 people worked at night and in the early morning at 36 priority locations to clear snow and make areas affected by passenger traffic safe, he said thanking them for their work.
 

The spokesperson for the National Directorate General for Disaster Management (OKF) told a press conference on Wednesday afternoon that no settlements in the country were isolated and public utilities were functioning properly everywhere.

MTI Stock Photo - for illustrative purposes only

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com
 

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