Budapest Xperience

The original purpose of the first metro line was to carry passengers to Budapest City Park, although the capital always opposed any surface transport on Andrássy Avenue, which has since become the most elegant road in Budapest and part of the World Heritage Site.The National Assembly accepted the metro plan in 1870, and the German firm Siemens & Halske AG was commissioned for the construction, which started in 1894.

It took 2,000 workers using state-of-the-art machinery less than two years to complete it.This section was built entirely from the surface with the cut-and-cover method. Completed by the deadline, it was inaugurated on May 2, 1896, the year of the millennium, by Emperor Franz Joseph.

One of the original cars is preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum. The train ran along Andrássy Avenue, from Vörösmarty Square (the centre) to City Park, in a northeast-southwest direction, but its terminus was the Zoo. It had eleven stations: nine underground and two aboveground. The length of the line was 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi) at that time; trains ran every two minutes. It was able to carry as many as 35,000 people a day (today 103,000 people travel on it on a workday).

Plans for the next two metro lines were made as early as 1895, defining the main directions of north-south and east-west. The first plans for today’s two lines were made in 1942, and a Council of Ministers’ decree kicked off construction in 1950. Metro 2 was originally planned to connect two major railway stations, Keleti (Eastern) and Déli (Southern) pályaudvar. It was originally supposed to have been completed by 1955, but construction was ceased for financial and political reasons from 1954 till 1963. It was finally opened with seven stations on April 4 (a Communist holiday) in 1970. It runs in an east-west direction, and as yet it is the only line to cross the River Danube and reach Buda, the western part of Budapest. It has a joint station with the existing metro at Deák Ferenc Square, which has since become a transfer point for the third line as well.

The first line underwent a thorough refurbishment between 1970 and 1973, including replacement of its rolling stock. When it reopened, the first line, which had previously run on the left, was switched to right-hand running, like the other lines. In 1973, both lines were extended—the first with one station, the second with four—and the first line reached its current length of 4.4 kilometres (2.7 mi), as well as the second at 10.3 kilometres (6.4 mi), serving eleven stations. The Budapest Transport Company (BKV) took over maintenance in 1973, and this company still runs the metro. The colour-marking of the metro lines was introduced in 1976, when the first section of the third line was opened to the public. This was when the first line was given the colour yellow, the second line red, and the third, blue. Additionally, green is used to mark the suburban railways (HÉV) in and around Budapest.

The first decree for the third line was made in 1963, its construction started in 1970, and its first section was opened in 1976, consisting of six stations. Its southern direction was complemented with five more stations in 1980, and the northern in 1981, 1984, and 1990 with nine stations, reaching its current length of 20 stations, 17 kilometres (11 mi), the longest line in Budapest. M3 runs in a north-south direction (more exactly, from north-northeast to southeast).

In the ’80s and ’90s, M1 underwent major reconstruction. Of its 11 stations, eight are original, and three were added during reconstruction. The stations recall the time of the millennium, including the floor, the benches, the wooden window frames, and the lighting. Every station is a little museum as well, with photos and information. There is a Millennium Underground Museum in the Deák Ferenc Square concourse where many other artifacts from that time can be seen.

Metro 4 (as of 2007, under construction) has a long history, reaching back to 1972. In the past decades, difficulties arose from the medicinal springs around its planned route. There was a long debate over whether its construction would be safe, what part should be paid by the government and the capital, whether it could be paid for from the Russian state debt towards Hungary, whether its route was appropriate, and whether it was needed, rather than, for example, helping the conurbation’s growth and access with a connector line, and how long it should be made in the first phase of construction. If it is finished by 2010 (which is the best case), its history will cover 37 years, the longest time of all the metro lines in Budapest.

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