Liberals call on city to name starting date of metro renovation

The mayor of Budapest has promised that work on renovating the city’s third metro line would start in September yet there are no signs if this happening, a Liberal politician said on Friday.

Viktor Szabadai, the party’s Budapest leader, called on the metropolitan council to state exactly when work would begin.

He told a press conference that the city currently did not have enough replacement buses or drivers for the line which serves more than half a million commuters, and he called on the council to clarify “where they intend to get the vehicles and drivers from”.

On June, Budapest transport company BKV has demanded that the manufacturer of trains for the third metro line, Metrovagonmas, pay a fine of 800 million forints (EUR 2.6m) for delivering reconditioned trains in an unacceptable condition.

The Liberal politician also complained that trains lacked air conditioning and not all stations would be wheelchair-accessible.

As we wrote this Tuesday, 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.

Photo: Daily News Hungary

Source: MTI