Big change in Budapest transport: no Nyugati overpass, tram on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Avenue?
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony announced on Tuesday that the forthcoming tram line connecting Budapest’s eleventh and fourth districts would mark “the most significant traffic development project in years to come”.
Addressing the project launch, the mayor noted that trams were a key plank of Budapest’s public transport system compared with other European cities. “We are still unsatisfied and want to make further developments,” he added.
Karácsony said that the new line and other parts of the project co-financed by the European Union will link parts of the city that already have a metro service, but the route require high-capacity services above ground.
As part of the Revitalising Avenues program, the inner sections of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Avenue and Váci Avenue will undergo a makeover, with Nyugati Square set for a complete redevelopment. Plans include the removal of the current overpass at the junction, aimed at creating a more inviting and spacious urban area.
The proposed changes aim to maintain the square’s throughput capacity while allowing traffic to cross the Great Boulevard at ground level. The introduction of high-capacity trams is expected to significantly improve commuting experiences, ensuring quicker and more comfortable journeys for passengers. Additionally, the redesigned area will serve a broader purpose, potentially transforming Nyugati Square into a vibrant and functional urban public space for Budapest residents.
Karácsony emphasised the positive impact of the new trams, asserting that they would enable “many more people to reach their destination faster and more comfortably than now.”
Following the dispute between the Budapest municipality and the Hungarian government, passengers stand to benefit from Hungary’s new and improved public transport fee system, offering clarity on prices and passes.
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Bring it ON.
“funding from the EU” EVERY major improvement in Hungary for the last 15 years has come with some “funding from the EU”. So I ask, who are these politicians that are always taking badly about the EU? What have THESE people done to help Hungary except complain? Why should not the EU make rules about spending EU monies?
I live right by Nyugati ter and that overpass is just… – who the heck came up with the idea to build such a monstrosity!? Only a Communist “mind” could conceive something so depressing and anti-human. I don’t see eye-to-eye with Mayo Greg on a lot, but I hope he and his gang follow up on this plan. A streetcar on Bajcsy though? Not sure sure ’bout that.
EU – for months now farmers in some of biggest members have revolted and I don’t remember it even mentioned here once.
The Wizz site that had a special section on Covid – and has never mentioned again after it has proved most it a fraud to the world and the biggest story in my lifetime. Several times I asked how the number of flu cases had dropped in half. Now we know most of the Covid cases were flu. The whole subject has been dropped in the EU like it never happened.
@Michael Steiner while it’s true the overpass WAS built during the Communist period, it was in line with global sentiment at the time seeking to improve traffic flow in order to facilitate use of private cars. Cities around the world were transformed with ring roads, overpasses and underpasses as a symbol of modernity and progress; really, building the Nyugati overpass an un-Communist thing to do as it was the capitalist free markets that believed the private car was a force for good while neglecting public transit in order to save public funds was a happy biproduct once everyone was safely cocooned in their cars.
The point of streetcar running on Bajcsy Zsilinszky is simply so that the network in northern Pest can reconnect with the rails that currently terminate at Deak Ferenc ter after they were truncated when the metro line opened. Same thing happened in Buda when the HEV was extended underground to Batthany ter, the streetcar connections were severed between northern and southern Buda beside the river. It’s a great project and will do a lot to transform transit in Pest, most of which is designed to funnel people into the metro in that part of the city, which is inflexible as the stations are far apart from one another.