The public transport lines are developing in the region, only Budapest is not making any progress
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While Budapest is busy renovating Metro Line 3 and constructing the new 5-kilometre-long tramway, a new tram- and metro line is being built in Warsaw, two new metro lines in Bucharest and a 20-kilometre-long tramway in Prague, reports hvg.hu.
In the EU budgetary period between 2014 and 2020, Budapest spends most of its money on renovating metro line 3. Although a reconstruction was long needed, this process right now cannot be called development. The metro line is not being extended, accessibility is not worked on, and the trains are not new, they are only renovated.
Hvg.hu looked into what other cities do with EU and non-EU aid with their transport lines until the end of 2019. Prague, Warsaw and Bucharest have a lot of common traits with Budapest, so they examined these cities. Bucharest has about 70 kilometres of metro lines and 140 kilometres of tramlines. Prague has a little over 60 kilometres of metro and a bit over 140 kilometres of tram. Budapest has barely 40 kilometres of metro lines and a little over 140 kilometres of tram lines. Lastly, Warsaw has almost 30 kilometres of metro and 130 kilometres of tram lines.
We can conclude from the data that Prague’s and Bucharest’s metro line is much bigger than that of Budapest, but the Hungarian capital city still has the biggest tramline system out of all.
Budapest: 0 km new metro lines, 5 km new tram lines
Looking at development, Budapest is at the bottom of the list out of the four cities. The biggest sum is spent on renovating Metro line 3: over 450 million euros. Out of all the proposed projects, only the two-way extension of tramline 1 is underway. The extension between Vörösvári street and Aranyvölgy train station costs 34 million EUR, the one between Fehérvári street and Kelenföld 28 million EUR.
photo: Kemenymate / wikipedia
Prague: 0 km new metro lines, 20 km new tram lines
Prague is building five new tram lines, 20 kilometres altogether, from EU funding. These lines will reach two big residential areas, up to Bohnice at north, and Haje metro station at the southeast. Three lines will be built from EU funding on 16.5 kilometres, with 286 million euros used. The capital city is going to build two shorter lines using their own resources. These two lines will be 3.6 kilometres long altogether and will cost 39 million EUR.
Although Prague is not building a metro line, the plans are already drawn up for a 10.6 kilometres long new line. The building process starts in 2018 the soonest, but the source for the money is not established as of yet.
Bucharest: 11 km new metro lines, 0 km new tram lines
Bucharest builds the most new lines, with all of the city’s resources used for this purpose. Metro line 4 of Bucharest will be extended with 2 kilometres to the north up to Straulesti, using 164 million EUR by 2018. Metro line 5’s first section will be built on 9 kilometres from Râul Doamnei and Ialomiţei to Eorilor. This will cost 706 million EUR, with 410 EUR covered by the EU. Bucharest’s city leadership promises to finish the whole 19 kilometres of line 5 and building a new, 16 km long metro line to the airport (will cost 380 million EUR) by 2020. However, no new tramlines will be built.
