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Public transport systems in Hungary

© Haragos Pal

Hungary as a new member of the EU, wants to provide a high, European level public transport system for everyone, living even in a small village or a large city. Hungary inherited its system from the communist era, when there were less private cars. Fortunately after the political change this systems were maintained because of social politics reasons, and the fares were kept in low level. For example the domestic fares are about one third of the most European tariffs. During the last decade more and more new and second hand car were sold in Hungary, and this increased the conjunctions in main roads and in towns. Financial problems and lack of investments caused that the service level declined, but governments and local authorities maintained the main public services and lines.

First of all I have to mention the railway system, which density is higher than the average of European one. There are regular train connection between large towns and the capital, Budapest. You can find also higher quality services like InterCity and InterCity trains where you can buy supplementary ticket as well (2 €). For domestic traffic the train ticket is cheap, 100 km in second class is only 3,8 €. The international train ticket prices are closer to the European prices but they are under this level (100 km is 9,6 €). http://www.mav.hu

Secondly I show you the coach services. Every settlement in Hungary has a regular coach connection to the nearest town. Besides that there is a regular Intercity services between towns and cities. Coach companies nowadays use modern buses and it make them more competitive. As for the prices, they are higher than in case of railway (100 km is4,8 €). http://www.volan.hu

The third segment is a local public transport. Larger towns have local transport systems, which are based on bus services. Only a few towns have tramlines (Szeged, Debrecen, Miskolc) or trolley bus service (Miskolc). The local tariffs are not too high, they are about 0,5 € per single trip.

Budapest, capital of Hungary has an excellent public transport system, which is run by Budapest Transport Company (BKV). BKV offers various services in 31 tramlines, 112bus lines, 14 trolley bus lines, 3 metro lines, 4 suburban railway lines, a cogwheel railway to the Szabadság Hill and a funicular to the Castle Hill. The tariff of BKV, based on a single trip without change, is 0,65 €. There is available discount and season tickets as well.