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

of the Communal Works Council, was against the idea of building a tram line on Sugár (today Andrássy) út. As had been thought about the horse tramway proposed earlier, it was believed that the line would deface Sugár út, a boulevard which should properly belong to pedestrians, cab and, maybe, omnibus riders.

A long time had to pass before the idea of building another underground line in Budapest was raised. In 1942 the city council decided to have a railway tube, running from north to south, built right below the surface, but the plan was prevented from being implemented by the war. The issue was taken off the agenda for some years, but with the onset of the Cold War the construction of an underground railway with a tunnel deep below the surface became important. The the first metro line, between Déli (Southern) and Keleti (Eastern) Stations, was started in 1950 as part of the preparations for a war that was believed to be imminent. The major objective was to establish communication between the two stations and to provide the populace and, above all, its political leaders with secure air raid shelter in the event of aerial bombardment. For experimental purposes an escalator was built in Hűvösvölgy, a gadget very popular with children who enjoyed riding on it up and down.

Construction was suspended in 1954 and only eventually resumed in 1963. The first section sunk deep in the earth connecting Déli Station and Deák tér was opened to the public in 1970. That was followed by section after section being opened until the entire line, running to the Örs vezér tér terminus, was completed. Construction work on the second, north-south, metro line commenced in 1976, and its last existing section was opened in 1990. The the full length of this line and the construction of a depot at Káposztásmegyer are yet to be completed.

By cogwheel railway to Sváb Hill

It was more than a hundred years ago that Europe’s third cogwheel railway line was opened in 1874 with the first train pulling out of its station to ascend Budapest’s Sváb Hill. Adolf Agai, who participated at the opening ceremony, gave the following account of the event:

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