Budapest Transport Center sues German company for damages
The Hungarian party lost a tremendous amount of money due to an e-ticket system that does not even work.
BKK (Budapest Transport Center) sued a German company in the international court. – wrote Index. Scheidt & Bachmann was supposed to build and operate an electronic ticket system for 91 million euros, and the project would have had seven phases. Only four phases were accomplished, so the lawsuit was filed, and Budapest’s leaders supported it.
Népszava looked into the case and found out that
the system never worked, and most of the ticket scanners and gates are in a warehouse. According to calculations of the capital city, the project caused a loss of 9 billion forints (EUR 25,707,816), and the total costs rose to 37 billion (EUR 105,687,688 ).
Mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, promised in his election campaign that people involved in the case would be held accountable. ” It is impossible that nobody is responsible for the biggest scandal of Budapest in recent years.” – the mayor said.
85.6 million euros to supporting Hungary’s railway cargo transport
An important aspect of the issue is that BKK lost 4.7 billion forints (EUR 13,425,192) in 2019. The mayor of Hungary’s capital city thought that it was the disfunction of the e-ticket system that caused this tremendous financial loss.
The legal proceeding could take 2-4 years, and attorneys do not foresee a successful outcome. They saw little chance that the money spent on e-tickets that do not function could be restored. So is the case with parts acquired by BKK and given back for testing to the German company.
Scheidt & Bachmann also took measures. The company requested the money for the system components manufactured but never taken over and the payment for the damages caused by downtime. In 2019 6.7 billion forints (EUR 19,138,040) were demanded for the unusable system. However, BKK had already paid the company 7.6 billion (EUR 21,708,822).
Népszava wrote that BKK and Scheidt & Bachmann were supposed to resolve the conflict instead of going to court but eventually could not reach an agreement.
Budapest is one of the most cycling-friendly cities in Eastern Europe
Source: Index, Népszava
I am surprised that the London Tfl Oyster system run by Cubic Transportation Systems (the world’s largest operator of public transport fare collection systems) was not used as it it is now tried and tested technology (it started in 2003 and all the issues were resolved over time). If it works in London, one of the largest and most complex public transport systems in the world, it would work on the much smaller Budapest network.