A Ride Back in Time

Hello there! A new week and a new post. This time we will travel a bit back in time. Not too much, just back to the beginning of the 1900s.

At the time when the first underground (in continental Europe!) rolled along underneath the streets of Budapest, with its first debut on March 2nd, 1896. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Budapest_subway_1896.jpg

Now, 116 years later, there is still the possibility to travel back in time a bit and take a ride on one of these old underground carriages. Of course, it has received a fresh paint job since then and it is now all polished and shiny, but the carriage itself - frame and structure - it exactly as before.

In special celebration the Hungarian public transportation awarded tickets to some lucky ones to travel in such a car. Here it is - number 11.

The carriages - decorated with special American pine slates - were all electronically motorized.That was big news back then.

The original commute extended from Vörösmarty tér along Andrássy and passing by Hősök tere  to Széchenyi fürdő  - a solid 3,7 km one way. In the 1970s, the line was extended till Mexikói út and the stop at the Állatkert (zoo) was closed . (Interesting fact: till 1973 the underground rode on the left hand side, whilst traffic above ground was already going on rights hand side)

With such nice features, it is no surprise that the underground was extremely popular. Up to 35 thousand people used this transportation on a busy day. By 1917 the number of commuters in one year reached the 11 million. Would it have been as crowded as the metro cars today?

One thing is for sure: for us it was a breezy commute with a small group of 20. And we were all really excited to travel in style.

Do you also really want to travel in this carriage? Well, believe it or not you can actually rent it out  - for only 95.000 Ft + tax!

As part of the celebration, visitors were also able to discover the old buses that roamed the streets of Budapest.

The bus was decorated with old pictures from the time when these buses were a novelty to passengers.

Sitting comfortably. Personally, I would prefer this bus to the ones traveling on our streets nowadays.

Thanks to the BKV's leaflet "Földalatti Sztori" for all the historic facts and figures.