MÁV will receive 42 trains under the contract, while the remaining six will be delivered to GySEV. The partners are seeking to finance 85% of the purchase cost through European Union sources as part of funding applications to Hungary's national development agency, which implies that the new trains are destined for use on suburban or regional services. The trains are likely to be a similar configuration to the 60 Stadler Flirt emus already in service with MÁV and the four ordered by GySEV in April 2012.
The GySEV trains cost around €1.5 million per vehicle for a four-car set, the same price paid by MÁV in 2005. A further order would strengthen the position of Stadler in Hungary, which has an assembly plant in Szolnok.
MÁV Start, the passenger subsidiary of MÁV, has invested heavily in recent years in refurbishing coaches and purchasing new dmus and emus for suburban traffic around Budapest. However, many older vehicles remain in use and the need to hire locomotives from MÁV Trakció for push-pull services, as well as the need to modernise regional services on main lines further from Budapest, means additional multiple units are required.
