History of Transport of the 150-year-old Budapest

150 Years of Budapest's Transport History is the subject of a tabloid exhibition entitled Budapest 150 - Public Transport in the Age of Unification, on display in the capital from this Monday to May 15.

The exhibition, illustrated with a number of contemporary photos, shows the transport conditions in Pest-Buda in the 1800s and can be seen on board two Alstom Metropolis underground trains No. 510 and 514 on the M2 line. 26 panels show the impact of the development of public transport in Budapest and how urban development has influenced the modernization of public transport.

The exhibition recalls that the first means of ‘public transport’ were the omnibus and the horse-drawn railway, which were already in use before the unification of Pest, Buda and Óbuda in 1873. The omnibus was launched in 1832 and soon became part of the urban folklore, but this horse-drawn carriage, which could carry 12 to 24 passengers, was still in use in the capital in 1926.

The horse-drawn tramway, which started in 1866, was similar, running on a fixed track, was faster and carried more passengers. Two decades later, however, they began to be replaced by electrically powered trams, contributing to the explosive growth of the new capital. As a result, a succession of companies was set up to build and operate tramways. At the same time, steam traction, then also electrically powered local trains, started to serve the surrounding settlements.

The Buda Railway (today the Buda Sikló) and the Rack Railway, the Millennium Underground Railway, or the small underground, are still preserved in modernized form.

The underground, considered a technical milestone by world standards, was proposed by Mór Balázs after the construction of a surface railway on the elegant avenue opened in 1876 was not allowed for "urban planning" reasons. This necessity led to what would become the greatest innovation in urban transport.