Várnagy Zoltán: Urban Transportation - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)
busy after the completion in 1910 of the Erzsébet lookout tower on János Hill. From 1911 buses ran from Zugliget to Budakeszi. In 1913, at a meeting of the financial committee of the city council, the idea was raised of starting city-owned buses, and a decision was made to study foreign methods. While plans were being formulated about how to initiate transportation by motor bus, the Royal Hungarian Automobile Club pointed out that, based on the experiences of Vienna and Paris, vibration caused by massive buses damaged public utilities below and buildings alongside bus routes. Yet the general assembly of the municipality passed a resolution to discontinue horse-drawn omnibus services and introduce motor bus transportation in their place. The assembly had no intention of issuing permits for the operation of bus services, a right which the city wished to reserve for itself. The renovation of Lánchíd (Chain Bridge) scheduled for 1914 came in handy for those urging the purchase of buses as the omnibuses crossing the bridge would have to be replaced. Exercising due circumspection, the authorities invited international tenders for buses with electric or petrol-fuelled engines. Prototypes were duly delivered, but the competition was cancelled when the war broke out. During the war private businesses terminated their excursion services. However, two test buses-one electric, one petrol-fuel- led-were put into service on 1 March, 1915, along the length of Andrássy út. The fare was 14 fillérs. To make the service more frequent on this increasingly popular route, further buses were acquired, and their terminus was moved to Kígyó tér (today Ferenciek tere). In 1917 the experimental service was suspended due to severe shortages of fuel and spare parts. It was only four years later, in the summer of 1921, that the reorganization of bus services commenced again in Budapest. Following a lengthy debate, the city council purchased, in view of the fuel shortage, three second-hand, battery-powered buses in Vienna. The issue was brought before the general assembly on 15 July, the very day that Vienna stipulated as the deadline until which its offer was valid. The alderman in the assembly objected to not having been given sufficient time to deliberate on the offer, but 30
