Várnagy Zoltán: Urban Transportation - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)
Multitudes of cars emitting horrible fumes inch along the streets of Budapest virtually from morning to night. In most cars there is one person, two at the most, sitting and cursing the city, its traffic, the municipal authorities and the government. Everybody, that is, except themselves. They do that, even though they could reach their destination faster and without inhaling as much smoke if they went by metro, tram or bus. It is now almost a hundred and fifty years since public transport was introduced in Budapest-horse trams and omnibuses at the beginning, and later the more modern vehicles which are still in use. Novelists dream of all sorts of gadgetry from personal rockets fixed onto one’s back to cabins gliding along in tubes and flying automobiles. However, in our overpopulated cities, half choked to death by carbon-monoxide and smog, the tram may turn out to be the most important means of public transport in the 21st century. The fact that there was a new tram line built in New York in 1993 perhaps points in that direction. Let us examine, then, the beginnings of public transportation in a large city like Budapest, and what part has been played by its famous yellow trams. KÖZLEKEDÉS CITY HALL
