Várnagy Zoltán: Urban Transportation - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)
In 1820 the first permit to start a steamboat ferry was issued. The service was run by Antal Bernhard with a barge towed by the Carolina, a tug-boat designed by Bernhard himself. Twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, the ferry started from a landing stage near today's Vigadó tér, put in at Bomba (today Batthyány) tér and at the Császár Baths, and arrived in Óbuda. During the day it sailed on a shorter route and turned back at the Császár Baths. The venture was unprofitable and service was discontinued after a few years. The company founded to build the Chain Bridge was given the right to collect taxes on any form of crossing. The contract which was supposed to stay in force until 1936, stipulated that “no manner of ship, ferry, small boat, steamboat, or any other means of crossing the river between the boundaries of the two cities is to be operated on a commercial basis without a public licence issued by the company.” Although the contract did not in fact remain in force for a hundred years, it did make ferry crossing difficult for a time. In 1844 the entrepreneur János Girczy started a service connecting Pest, Bomba tér in Buda and Óbuda. As many as a hundred and fifty passengers could board his ferry Hoffnung. In the same year another, cheaper, service was opened by the Danube Steamboat Company (DGT), which eventually put Girczy out of the river-crossing business. DGT’s service had no less than 479,574 passengers in 1846. Cintil the turn of the century business grew steadily, and there were seven ferries operating between the following points: 1. Bomba tér-Árpád utca 3. Chain Bridge, Buda side-Vigadó tér 4. Tabán-Vigadó tér 5. Chain Bridge, Buda side-Eskü (today Március 15) tér 6. Rudas Baths-Eskü tér 7. Sáros (today Gellért) Baths-Fővám tér Besides the Danube Steamboat Company, the Budapest Propeller Ferry and Sailing Co., too, was given a license. The screw-steamers operated by the latter were smaller than the other company’s paddle-wheelers and could only carry 100-150 passengers. The statistics drawn up by DGT for the year 1899 mention 663 thousand passengers, but in their busiest year, the year 42
