The first tram in Budapest ran 135 years ago!

Trams are an essential part of Budapest’s landscape and it all started 135 years ago. The first tram was introduced to Budapest in 1887 on the Great Boulevard (Nagykörút). It was a fairly new invention and quite unusual at the time. People were used to horse carriages in the city and rails were only used by giant steam engines. This little electrical machine changed the way we live forever.

Ányos Jedlik created the first electric vehicle 32 years prior, but it was just a small project. The technology still needed decades to be able to carry passengers and also the work of Siemens von Werner. The new machine was first showcased in Berlin where it was first used, but only in the suburbs as leaders at the time were still sceptical about the invention. The first downtown tram line was created a few years later in Budapest.

Budapest’s first tram

As this was a new technology, it did not have the infrastructure anywhere in the city. So, the first test route was made between Nyugati railway station and Király Street. The authorities limited the speed of the vehicle, so the tram sped through the city at the speed of a whopping 10 kilometres per hour. Where the line crossed Andrássy Street, the tram had to be escorted by a mounted policeman. The city’s leadership did not allow the construction of overhead lines, thus, the tram got its power from below.