Budapest transport company is being torn apart

According to Index.hu, István Tarlós, mayor of Budapest’s prediction about BKK (Central for Budapest Transport) might soon come true. The road sector and the public transport will be separated, and BKK will only oversee the purchases and will supervise the taxis.

Index has recently got hold of a letter referring to the Budapest general meeting of 20 January 2016, which states that BKK will operate according to the new model from 1 April 2016. It will change the tasks of BKK concerning heavy traffic, the parking- and taxi services.

As of April 1 2016, BKK will only be responsible for the managing of road services tasks (strategic plans, prioritised developments, coordination of different programmes, and displaying information), and the Budapest Közút Ltd will take over the operation, maintenance, and renovation of public roads, together with the administration, inspection, and related tasks.

FÖRI (the Budapest municipality police directorate) will be responsible for monitoring the weight restricted areas, will take care of public road traffic management, and will investigate the crime scenes of any accidents.

The vehicles that do not have a permit to enter a weight restricted area will be fined on the spot by the employees of FÖRI, but any other heavy traffic related task will fall under the jurisdiction of the Budapest Közút Ltd.

Apart from monitoring the taxi services, every other task will be taken away from BKK, and its main priority will be the purchasing of different vehicles from BKV (Budapest Transport Company), from VT-Arriva, or from other companies.

István Tarlós, mayor of Budapest predicted in December 2015 that if the public road services are taken away from BKK, which has always prioritised public transport, then this can be the first step in making Budapest less public transport oriented.

In the past five years public transport has dominated Budapest, as did bikers, or the running competitions, keeping other vehicles such as cars, in the background. Therefore the Mór Balázs plan, which contains elements of the new transport development plans, will be re-evaluated. Tarlós called the restricting of the car traffic a mistake.

His future plans were criticized both by the Bycicle Club and VEKE (Urban and Suburban Transit Association). One of the biggest problems of the shift is that Budapest could only achieve these goals if it would get EU funds, but the Union does not fund the construction of public roads; only those projects are accepted that promote sustainable development via community transport, and those that are environmentally friendly.

Copy editor: bm

Source: index.hu