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

as 18 million passengers in its first year of operation, had been equipped with signalling and safety appliances before it was opened.

Today’s modern, nondescript cars made in the Ganz factory run under the surface all the way to Mexikói út-admittedly faster and with more passengers on board than their predecessors. Those original carriages, built by the firm Siemens & Halske, were mounted on chasses in the shape of a rampant arch. The chasses travelled on bogies. For decades it was the conductor’s job to open and close the doors, and passengers had to stand in lines between handrails and wait for their turn to get into the cars at busier stations. At the Oktogon stop there was even a turnstile to further slow down the flow of pushing and shoving crowds during rush hours. Car No. 20, the royal salon carriage, which was a lavishly appointed affair with wooden panelling and a spacious interior, carried Emperor Francis Joseph himself on 8 May, 1896, when he visited the Millenary Exhibition in Budapest. One of the first cars, restored to its original condition, can be seen in the small Cinder- ground Museum, at the Deák tér metro station.

The construction of the underground railway (called Francis Joseph Underground Electric Railway until after World War II) was suggested by Mór Balázs, director of the Budapest City Electric Railway Company, because the minister of the interior, sharing the opinion

A CAR OF THE FRANCIS JOSEPH UNDERGROUND RAILWAY

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