Hungarian Trams & Trolleybuses - Budapest Part 1

The capital of Hungary is the large city of Budapest.  Situated on the river Danube, the west bank is the older and hilly Buda, the east bank is the larger and newer Pest.  There are many superb buildings, especially the Hungarian Parliament building that looks impressive whether it is day or night time.  There is a vast tramway network, which includes normal street running trams and former light rail cars from Hannover, as well as a trolleybus system, metro and a cog-wheel railway.  For the purpose of our video programme we have divided it into two parts.  Part one features mostly the trams running in central Budapest, with part two featuring the trolleybuses, light rail and the trams running in the suburbs, with a brief visit to the cog-wheel railway.  We also see the buses on both programmes as they integrate with the trams and trolleybuses. Electric trams were introduced in 1887.  Today in 2015 when our filming took place there were 33 lines of which 26 are main lines with 7 supplemental lines.  The fleet is made up of older locally built Ganz cars, of which some are articulated.  Tatra T5 cars, Düwag TW 6000 (Light Rail) and Low floor Siemens Combino trams which are currently the longest trams in Europe.  They are operated from 9 depots situated all over the city.  The operating company is BKV (Budapesti Közlekedési Vállalat) who’s logo still appears on the vehicles, but in 2010 became BKK (Budapesti Kózlekedési Központ). Around a third of the buses are operated by private companies, but are all in BKK colours.  The trams are in a yellow livery, trolleybuses in red and the buses blue.
   
Our filming commences on this programme at Vámház krt. Then we move to the busy Szent Gellért tér M interchange.  Our cameras continue along the banks of the Danube and board Ganz KCSV7 car number 1344 on route 2 to the Hungarian Parliament Building at Kossuth Lajos tér.  With more filming completed around this area we board similar tram 1340, also on route 2 to Boráros tér.  Another filming location is Móricz Zsigmond körter M and from here we board Ganz tram 1476 for a ride back to Szent Gellért tér M.  We now take a look at Budapest by night.  Travelling on tram 1352 along route 2 we reach the Hungarian Parliament building at twilight and film the trams as night falls at this magical location.  Our cameras then film in the Astoria area and see both trams and buses going about their work on the busy night-time streets.  This completes part one of our visit to Budapest.  Join us in part two for trolleybus coverage and even more trams!