Orbán cabinet purges Budapest ticket, pass scheme: chaos may come in March

The Budapest pass scheme was introduced in the capital in the middle of the 2000s and revolutionised public transport. Thanks to that, you do not buy separate tickets or passes for MÁV and HÉV trains or Volán buses with which you may travel within Budapest. That makes life easier for many commuters living in the capital’s outer districts or in the suburbs. Now, that scheme might end because of a government-Budapest dispute.

Chaos may come in Budapest if the scheme is executed

To cut things short, two agreements regulate the Budapest unified travel scheme. The scheme allows everybody to use MÁV and HÉV trains and every Volán bus carrying passengers in Budapest for only HUF 9,500 (EUR 25) a month or with a single ticket for HUF 450, time-based tickets or travelcards, etc. HERE you can check out all the current types and prices.

The system makes life easier because you do not have to wait for BKV (Budapest Transport Company) buses e.g. in the outer districts, but can use a Volán bus. Furthermore, you may travel from Budapest Nyugati railway station to Kőbánya-Kispest or even Ferihegy station with your Budapest monthly pass. You do not have to buy separate tickets for the train operated by the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) or the state-owned Volánbusz.

As a result, Budapest’s public transport system is one of the best in Europe because vehicles commute frequently, helping you get home or to your workplace.

Furthermore, if e.g. the Csepel HÉV trains cannot commute, it is not the Volánbusz that has to redirect replacement buses but the BKK. As a result, buses arrive earlier to help passengers out.

Finally, BKK (Budapest Transport Centre) created the Budapest GO app and its different passenger information systems and travel calculation aiding software based on the integrated public transport system.

And that is what might come to an end this March.

Dispute between Budapest and the ministry

That may come after a financial dispute between the government and the leadership of Budapest. Budapest paid HUF 6,9 billion (EUR 17.2 million) to MÁV and Volánbusz to maintain the above-mentioned service in 2016. That sum would have increased to HUF 8.6 billion (EUR 22.74 million) last year, but the leadership of Budapest did not accept that.

Meanwhile, the government pays HUF 12 billion (EUR 31.75 million) to Budapest as a public transport normative support and its role as a transport organiser, etc, telex.hu wrote. The latter’s main reason is that only Budapest maintains a complex public transport system, including metros. Operating the metro lines is very expensive.