Várnagy Zoltán: Urban Transportation - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)
Podmaniczky utca and Stáció (today Baross) utca routes as electric tram lines in 1888, even though these were first designed for steam engines. The route was owned by the Budapest City Electric Railway Company. Its former headquarters in Akácfa utca today houses the head office of Budapest Public Transport Authority. The first central electric generator can still be seen in the courtyard. In 1890 the Budapest electric tramway system had 4.5 million passengers, while horse- drawn trams carried 18 million. There were new electric lines built, but the horse tramway system was also developed for a while with new routes added, and the number of passengers continued to increase. In 1885, the last year in which the Budapest Street Railway Company published figures concerning the horse tramway, the number of passengers was 23 million. In 1896 22 million passengers used the electric tramway system-a figure which includes those travelling on the Ferenc József Underground Railway opened on the occasion of the Millenary celebrations. Yet, according to estimates, horse-drawn trams only carried a total of 11 million. With the Millenary Exhibition over, which meant no more visitors from outside Budapest, the following years saw the number of passengers using electric trams decrease, but the number of those travelling on underground trains continued to rise. The capital is indebted to the builders of the tram system for many a masterful technological and architectural innovation. One of these is the track, mounted on iron supports and viaducts, which was built along the promenade on the Pest embankment. The steel structure, however, is today in a rather poor condition. The yellow colour of Budapest trams had to vie for predominance for a long time with the brown of competing cars, as there were times when this difference enabled passengers to tell one company’s lines from another’s. Trams run by the Budapest Street Railway Company were brown, and so were the patterned ones belonging to BUR Railway Company, which ran from Lehel utca at Ferdinánd Flyover to the church in Megyer and, later, to Rákospalota. Yellow, albeit not the same shade we can see in the streets today, was the colour of trams owned by the Budapest City Electric Railway Company. The design of the cars also changed much 8
