HUNGARY - Budapest Transport

The main focus of this afternoon was a trip up into the Buda Hills for a ride on the Children's Railway. A number of Pioneer Railways were set up in Warsaw Pact countries during communist times - short peices of track with all the trappings of a major railway - stations, signals and of course trains - to allow children from 10 upwards to develop a work ethic, develop an interest in railways and therefore nurture the next generation of employees and to just let kids have fun playing around with trains.

The Budapest one was one of the largest running for 11 km or 7 miles through the forest in the hills above the city with 8 stations and one tunnel. It is by far the best well known and is still functioning today. All the staff - ticket sellers, guards, ticket checkers, station announcers, rail admin, signallers etc.- are all children aged between 10 and 16 with only the train drivers themselves being adults although there is an adult at each station to supervise what the kids are doing. The railway is operated by the State Railway Organisation MAV and all the children wear the correct MAV uniforms and salute the trains as they arrive and depart just as employees did in Communist times.

It's a big thing to be involved with, there is a waiting list for places and because it runs 7 days a week the children must get some sort of credit against their schooling for the days that they attend.

Tickets are very reasonable at about £3.50 return.

Budapest is home to some really good transport options and the system is very easy to use so lets look at some of them:

To get to the Children's Railway in the hills on the Buda side of the River Danube you can take a Rack/Cogwheel railway from near 'Szell Kalman ter' metro station on line 2. The cogwheel train climbs steeply into the hills every 20  minutes throughout the day.

Normal Budapest travel tickets are accepted and I would simply recommend getting a pre validated pass for the whole system for the duration of your stay - 72 hours travel cost me £12 - a bargain.

If you buy individual tickets you must validate them for each journey. Whilst the system looks like it works on an honesty basis, there are plain clothed and uniformed inspectors everywhere and they are thorough - I have never had a ticket checked so much.

Other things for you .....

Did you know that Budapest tram lines 4 and 6 are the busiest tram routes in Europe and therefore use some of the longest trams?

I know - they have painted a face on the front!

Did you also know that the team from Budapest won the European Tram Driving Championship in 2024 and will defend their title in Vienna in September? (The UK fielded teams from Birmingham and Edinburgh last year)

In London bus route 11 is known to provide a good sightseeing tour of the city for the price of a bus ticket. In Budapest its tram route 2 which does the job running on a raised promemade along the Pest bank of the Danube. The trams are older and sitting on one, on a summers evening with the windows open watching the world go by is a winner.

Budapest metro line 1 is the second oldest underground railway in the world after London and therefore the oldest in continental Europe. The line is not very deep underground so no escalators and the trains are quite small - only three carriages. They look more like trams and the station architecture has a period feel to it. Metro line 1 has a small museum dedicated to it at 'Deac Ferenc ter' station (Lines 1, 2 and 3)

Lastly the best way of getting up to the Castle Hill district in Buda is to use bus route 16 from outside the Kemplinski Hotel in Erzsebet ter (Elizabeth Square) near 'Deac Ferenc ter' metro station in Pest. Because of the narrow cobbled streets in Buda they can only use these small buses so it can get crowded but the buses are frequent - Note because of one way systems the route is different in each direction. 

The route crosses the Chain Bridge, does a loop around the old town on the top of Castle Hill and finishes at 'Szell Kalman ter' metro station that I mentioned above.

My last evening in Budapest today so I will finish with some sunset views. There won't be a post tomorrow as I have an 8 hour train journey to complete to Romania - clocks forward one hour as I move to Eastern European Time.