31 New CAF Trams to Join the Budapest Fleet

Thanks to the sponsorship contract signed by the Budapest Transport Center (BKK) and the Prime Minister's Office, the capital's fleet will be expanded with 31 new modern, low-floor and air-conditioned CAF trams, in addition to the 20 trains ordered last October.

In a statement sent to MTI, BKK said that under a government decision at the end of February, the capital will be equipped with a total of 51 trams under the Széchenyi Plan Plus program.

The 20 short trams ordered in October last year and the 31 additional trams – 26 short and five long vehicles – will be gradually put into service from the end of September 2024. The last of these trams should be delivered by the end of November 2026, they added.

They stressed that in the future, low-floor trams could also run on lines where currently only a few are available or none at all. These vehicles will also make it easier for people with reduced mobility and people with pushchairs to travel.

According to the information, the trams are energy-efficient because they use regenerative braking to feed energy generated during braking back into the grid, provided the overhead network is receptive.

BKK and the municipality of Budapest can purchase the vehicles with HUF 54 billion of EU funding, and the capital city contributed HUF 305 million to the development, the statement said.