Várnagy Zoltán: Urban Transportation - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)

Of course, it is only in a poem that tram cars remain the same for ever. As illustrated by the picture, there have been four basic types whose innumerable versions have run in Budapest. The oldest was the one with open boarding platforms, while the one to follow was the model whose platform was in the middle. This was introduced in 1928. Model 3600, nicknamed “stuka”, which can still be regarded as modern, was first manufactured during the war and was already equipped with remote-control doors operated by the driver. The same style is represented by the CIV-model, which was made in 1961. Many of these CIVs are still in service to this day. The first vehicles to appear with articulated bodies-an invention meant to increase the number of passengers that could be carried-were trams. They were later followed by buses and suburban trains. CSMG 2 articulated trams were first made in the seventies and the manufacturer, Ganz Ansaldo, has still been unable to design a model to supplant them. There are also Czech-made Tatra trams running in Budapest, which represent a transition between the CJV and the articulated models. One disadvantage is that they are very heavy, so require stronger tracks than the earlier types. There is, however, one very important requirement, becoming increasingly recognized the world over, which none of the trams running in Budapest satisfy, namely that the passenger should not be obliged to climb stairs. There are trams made in many places with a floor-level hardly above that of the pavement. This not only serves passengers’ convenience but also accelerates traffic flow, since the faster passengers can get on and off the faster the tram covers the required distance.

Cars manufactured in the first third of the century continued in service for a long time. The only thing to prevent passengers from falling off the platforms was rails that could be pulled up, which of course nobody bothered to use. If one knew the right technique, it was easy to jump on and off the cars, even when they were on the move. The writer Péter Lengyel describes this routine.

16