Várnagy Zoltán: Urban Transportation - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)
ian acronym BSZKRT was popularly pronounced, “Bess cart”) was formed. Transferring the system into municipal ownership was accomplished over ten years’ time. There was a long debate in the city council about the setting up of BSZKRT, with the majority hotly urging the buy-out, probably in the hope of getting lucrative positions on the board of directors. It was a good idea to assume control over the tramway companies, since they were all profitable and had, in the course of their operation, accumulated considerable assets. The value of these assets, as taken over by BSZKRT at the time the city took possession of the tramway lines, was determined at 170.5 gold crowns, which sum did not include the assets remaining in the possession of the original owners not being redeemed by the municipality. The profitability of the venture is clearly indicated by the fact that dividends were between ten and twenty per cent during the time of the land lease. Between 1918 and 1922, in the time of the Budapest City Electric Railway Company, the transport service often malfunctioned. Coal shortages meant that fuelling the generators was a constant source of difficulty. BSZKRT, however, not only had the deteriorated tracks and cars repaired, but even found resources to develop the system further. Although passenger figures dropped owing to the Great Depression, through keeping fares high and running jam-packed cars (throughout the day no cars ran unless they could be filled to capacity), the company managed to maintain its profitability. Between the two World Wars, only twenty kilometres of new track was added to the system, which thus reached a total length of 196 kilometres. The second World War saw even greater damage to the transport system than had been experienced in 1914-18. However, the first post-war tram, running between Forgách utca and the Újpest water tower, started very soon, on 7 February, actually a few days before the city was liberated from German occupation. But it wasn’t until 20 August, 1946 that the first tram links (routes 48, 49 and 63) were reconstructed between the two sides of the river Danube across the reconstructed Szabadság Bridge. In 1967 the total length of track in the Budapest tram system was greater than ever before or since. The 12
