Rolling in Budapest Cultural information in English … Hear everything first hand

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  Budapest’s Grand Boulevard  launched its 1^st electric tracks in 1887.

To-day this route is one of Europe’s busiest tram lines that carries around 7-8 thousand passengers/day. The line number 4 and 6 rolls through the city’s inner districts. It connects Buda and Pest side with its tracks above the River Danube. Cross two bridges while their wheels are rolling along the tracks through the downtown of Budapest.

 Mr. Dávid Vitézy, Chief Executive Officer, Budapest Transport Company opened the press and media  get-together in the late morning hours. Also in his company was  Mr. Zoltán Péter Üveges,  the representative of the Siemens, the company who were the contractors of this new development.

Where else than at the STEX  coffee-house, just right outside the corner of the traffic-light to the tram-stop line number 4 and 6, on the Grand Blvd. The Chief Executive Officer opened his talk by saying: “From the 1st of February, all along the Grand Blvd. there will be running time changes on the tram line number 4 and 6 in Budapest. The trams will be rolling on the Grand Blvd. more frequently, compared to the previous 28 trams/H to the runs of 30 trams/H. The tram line 4 and  6 running time will be shortened by 2-3 minutes. The journey time will be upon the length of the traffic-lights in favour to the trams. Within the project a number of 52 traffic-lights and 16 junctions’ traffic-lights will be re-programmed. For the average half-million passengers this will make a huge difference  to reach their journey more faster.” The Chief Executive Officer gave an overview of the financial side of this huge development. As said: “The project was of a total 44 million HUF. Within this number the main part of the costs were supported by the EU, by 40 million HUF.  The goal was to improve the competitiveness of the public transport to the individual’s using multiple times/day the tram lines on the Grand Boulevard.”  Mr. László Vitézy spoke about whole project. One of the main reason why the Center for Budapest Transport “BKK” and the Budapest Transport Co. “BKV” gave “green-lights” to make the tram transport for 7000-8000 (rush hours) individuals more convenient  because the previous years figures showed the traveling individuals with the use of trams on the Grand Boulevard were three-time more than the number of individuals driving by car in the same time and directions on the Grand Boulevard.”  The Director also added some  plans in the coming year’s:  “In the near-far future the paper-tickets and pass types of electronic payment methods are going to be replaced from the year 2014. This is also already in the planning stage of the new ticket system to be implemented. It will reflect to the main scheduled-time-based tickets, also known as pay-as-you-go! This will be the possibility of the use of the non-contact bank-cards. The  system will be gradually brought into operation. The price  of the “pay-as-you-go”  will be the cost of 15 million HUF. The first transition steps to the change from the pass-tickets to the electronic ticketing system will begin at the end of 2013 and last until October, 2014. The second phase would be after the first six months of 2015. The ticketing system will be transformed approximately to 10000 validation devices that will be placed into the vehicles and at  platforms. It will be running through an anonymous system, as a non-contact plastic cards. This will also improve the gaps of getting a pass ticket for the occasional local and foreigner travelers. This will ease them to have their own pass-ticket on the transport line of  Budapest. Many European countries are using this system with  satisfaction.”

Mr. David Vitézy, the Chief Executive Officer closed the press meeting by the following:  “As it may be familiar to many, I would like to thank the representatives of the press for coming by saying farewell in the old fashion way the Hungarian folks did.  So when a guest was  just about to leave the host’s home there were  two possibilities.  Depended how the talks went on.  One opt. was before the guest left either was beaten, or invited to the table of fully packed food.”  

Probably many had the knowledge of this common old fashion farewell habbit, so the press didn’t ask too much, didn’t want to get in trouble.  So we were invited to the table for a light brekky.”  Afterall the Chief Executive Officer said it all.

Update and snaps by Aggie Reiter