Saturday, March 17, 2012

Hungarian Transportation In the News

There could very well be more than this, but this is what I came across in transport news. 

The Budapest Airport Authority is seriously considering closing down what used to be called Ferihegy I Airport. It had since been renamed Liszt Ferenc International Airport Terminal I, but it may be again renamed as Redundant! It seems that with the demise of Malév Hungarian Airlines, there is now a whole lot of empty space at Terminal 2. This would mean transferring the budget airlines into the full service airport. What I hope it doesn't mean is higher fees for these airlines, which prompted so many of the past to cut Budapest from their radar.

The other loss here is transportation. The train from Nyugati Railway Station only extends to terminal 1. The tracks were never completed to make it to terminals 2A and 2B. Budget air passengers who opt for the train, will have to get off at the old terminal 1 stop and then continue by bus to the airport. The question lingering is whether or not the train will even maintain this stop if there is no longer a functioning airport.

Changing gears and modes of transport, yesterday Ron and I were waiting for a metro at Blaha Lujza. This shiny white tube-like apparition appeared with fancy new red seats. It stopped, but the doors never opened. There was a disenfranchised voice going blah, blah, blah or maybe it was Hungarian, but either way, we had no clue as to its meaning. A few minutes later, the old and familiar blue Russian train appeared to carry us off to our destination. Perhaps in our lifetime we will get to ride on the new cars that have been promised for the last four years. I have given up hope of ever riding on the new Metro 4 line.
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1 comments:

Arpad Farkas said...

I am told that Budapest’s 4th metro line has been in the pipeline since before I was born. It has gotten its own website since then, but that only helps as much as rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. Nonetheless, one should not be despondent. Metro 4 will probably have been operating by the time we pay for our tickets/passes in Euro rather than HUF.

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