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

Omnibuses and motor buses

The world’s first regular city omnibus service was started in Paris, in 1662, while Pest saw its first omnibus only in 1832. A restaurateur by the name of János Kratochwill applied successfully to the municipality for permission to operate a regular omnibus service between his two cafés-one at what is today Roosevelt tér by the Chain Bridge, the other in Városliget (City Park). His English-style city coaches would stop wherever a prospective passenger waved them down or when someone on board told the driver that they wanted to get off. Thus it wasn’t only the cafés’ customers who took the opportunity offered by Mr. Kratochwill (who, incidentally, made a profit on the 6 krajcár fares). He tried to start new lines, but the guild of Pest cab drivers proved more powerful. It was this guild that started to operate an omnibus service in Király utca from the Inner City to Városliget.

By 1833 Buda, too, had its omnibuses. These coaches took the city’s burghers to various beauty spots and recreation facilities. The original models were gradually replaced by larger ones, and more and more routes were opened. From the mid-1840s they already connected different parts of the city with each other and with outlying villages. Omnibuses were much more varied than their later descendants, today’s buses.

Omnibüs in the City Park

28