CZ/SK verze

New Urbos Trams Will Boost Public Transport in Budapest

New Urbos Trams Will Boost Public Transport in Budapest
photo: CAF/New Urbos Trams Will Boost Public Transport in Budapest
14 / 04 / 2023

Budapest-based Budapesti Közlekedési Központ has ordered 31 Urbos trams from CAF. The trams are low-floor, which should help disabled people with wheelchairs and sports wheelchairs.

The purchase of these trams was part of a contract signed by the BKK in 2014 for the delivery of 37 vehicles, with an option to extend the order. These trams were co-financed by the European Union from the Cohesion Fund. They paid €114.5 million for the new Urbos. Twenty-six trams are 5-module trams, and the remaining 5 are 9-module trams. The other 20 units should be delivered by the summer of 2024.

The operating speed of these modern, fast and safe vehicles is 50 km/h. The total capacity of the five-module trams is 326 passengers, and the total length of the vehicles is 34 meters. The nine modular trams are 56 metres long and have a capacity of 562 passengers.

Currently, one-third of Budapest's electric fleet is made up of vehicles over 45 years old, with a planned lifetime of only 30 years. The purchase of new trams is intended to awaken interest in public transport in Budapest.

Overall, the city is trying to modernise its public transport, currently, more than half of which is made up of low-floor vehicles. In addition, they are also working on the reconstruction of the 17-kilometre-long metro line 3. The overall modernisation is financed by the so-called Connecting Europe Facility 2021-2027 (CEF2).
Last year, the Hungarian government also approved Budapest's railway strategy until 2024, consisting of projects worth €10 billion, with the overall aim of modernising the railway network, unifying the ticketing system, and increasing capacity and train frequency.

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