A roundabout leading nowhere in the middle of a field, built with 500 million forints of EU money

Between Zalaegerszeg and Zalaszentiván, two towns in Western Hungary there is a roundabout the middle of a field. It looks as if someone accidentally dropped it there, since it doesn’t connect anything. Next to it is a large project signboard showing that the local municipality spent over a million Euros of European Union support on it. We followed the history of the absurd-looking development, which began over four years ago.

In theory, the roundabout is supposed to serve a private company, the logistics center and container terminal of Metrans. This center’s construction was announced in 2021 however it has not started yet. The reason for the delay: the center requires a railway extension which the government promised four years ago but has not begun.

In February 2021, Foreign Minister Szijjártó Péter announced that the German Metrans company would build a container terminal and logistics centre in Zalaegerszeg with a budget of HUF 15.7 billion.

Container terminal promised four years ago

The purpose of the investment was that goods arriving by rail from the Adriatic ports (Trieste, Koper, Rijeka) could continue onwards from there towards Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland without having to detour through Budapest.

Visualization of Metrans’ planned container terminal (source: YouTube)

In order to help this investment, the Zalaegerszeg municipality undertook that it would build the access road and the roundabout leading to the future container terminal, and it would utility-service the land purchased by the company. The municipality says it has already fulfilled its commitments by the end of 2023 – these works are visible on the site.

As the project sign next to the lonely roundabout shows, the works were carried out by the municipality of Zalaegerszeg with a little over HUF 500 million (EUR 1,25 million) in EU funding.

Poster advertizing the EU-funded project, with the roundabout in the background (photo: Átlátszó/Gergely Pápai)

The railway upgrade hasn’t even started

However, there is still no container terminal anywhere, even though in September 2021 Metrans representatives and Szijjártó together laid the foundation stone. A railway development is also required for the logistics centre to operate. Currently, trains passing Zalaegerszeg in the north-south direction can only pass through the Zalaszentiván station by reversing direction, increasing travel time and requiring personnel.

Therefore, the Hungarian government promised in 2021 – alongside providing HUF 3.9 billion in support to Metrans – that it will build a new “delta-track” west of Zalaszentiván so that the company’s freight trains can travel north-south without reversing direction. But the railway development has not even begun.

The so-called delta-track project was not rushed: only one year after the U-turn foundation stone of the terminal did the Ministry of Construction and Transportation request EU support together with the rail operator GYSEV in autumn 2022. The European Commission decided to grant funds for the Zalaszentiván delta-track; the agreement was signed in June 2023, but then another year passed in waiting.

GYSEV only issued the procurement call for construction in autumn 2024 – but a winner has not yet been announced, even though the application deadline expired in March 2025. According to preliminary information the cost of the delta-track construction is expected to be HUF 12 billion, to be financed roughly half by the EU and half by the Hungarian state.

We asked the Ministry of Construction and Transport and GYSEV which companies bid, what the amounts were, whether evaluation is completed, who won, how much the project will cost and when it will begin – but in vain. The ministry said GYSEV is responsible; the rail operator said the procurement process is still ongoing, so they cannot comment.

The company and the mayor are pointing fingers at the government

We did get detailed information from the mayor of Zalaegerszeg (in office since 2014) Balaicz Zoltán. The mayor emphasised that the municipality has done the tasks it undertook; it has no influence over the delta-track construction. But if that starts, then Metrans will also be able to commence the container terminal, which would be, in his view, “not only important for Zalaegerszeg, but also for Hungary’s European logistics position.”

He also stated that they plan to build another roundabout and a rain-water drainage system, and they would like to replace the overhead power line too – for this second round of development they have a budget of HUF 954 million, again from EU funds.

We also received a detailed response from Metranst: a representative of the company informed us that they had not yet been able to start the investment because “the basic condition is that the Zalaszentiván delta track planned as part of the state development project must be built.

Without rail service, the terminal cannot operate.”

Attila Zahalka, the company’s commercial director, wrote that for them the Zalaegerszeg investment remains of outstanding importance, but regrettably noted that the preparation phase has been drawn out for so long and that no meaningful progress has yet been made with the state railway development. He emphasised that Metrans has carried out all the necessary preparations, and “the actual launch of the investment depends exclusively on the construction of the state delta-track.”

The Zalaszentiván delta-track will not be built any time soon: according to the procurement announcement the winner will have 840 days (i.e., more than 2 years) to build it. So even if they start this year, the earliest completion would be end of 2027 – yet at the 2021 foundation-stone event Szijjártó said that from 2023 the terminal would start operations.

Instead, only the lonely roundabout standing in a field was completed that year.