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

THE FIRST TRAM OUTSIDE THE RAILWAY STATION

suggested by the title of his study: Budapest’s Steam Tramway System. The proposal was made in the course of negotiations with the municipality that an electric tram line could be built on the Danube embankment, but due to the authorities’ very tangible reluctance, only the installation of an experimental line was agreed on. The line was built by the German firm Siemens und Halske, which also provided the cars and even the engine driver. The first electric tramway in Budapest ran between Nyugati (Western) Station and Király utca, and was opened on 28 November, 1887.

Budapest’s first tramway had a narrow track and the electric current was supplied from below, since the authorities would not permit the installation of “unsightly” overhead lines. Similarly to the system used in today’s metro, there was a third rail underneath one of the rails on which the cars actually ran, and this was connected to the 300-volt, DC power supply. A currentcollecting shuttle ran in the channel made for the third rail. Later routes were built with the regular 1435-millimetre gauge, the width used with railway tracks, but current-conducting rails laid underneath the tracks remained in use along with overhead lines. Investors and entrepreneurs were attracted by this means of public transport promising certain success in a city whose growth seemed unstoppable. Prompted by the success of the experiment, those in charge decided to build the

7