The Budapest Metro (Hungarian: Budapesti metró) is the rapid transit system in the Hungarian capital Budapest. It is the oldest electrified underground railway system on the European continent, and the second-oldest in the world, predated only by the 1890 City & South London Railway (now part of the London Underground). Its iconic Line 1, completed in 1896, was declared a World Heritage Site in 2002.
The Metro consists of four lines, each designated by a number and a color.
Line 1 runs northeast from the Pest city center to City Park along Andrássy Avenue.
Line 2 runs generally east to west from the transit hub Örs vezér tere on the city's east side, and provides a connection between Keleti railway terminal and Déli railway terminal through the city center.
Line 3 runs northwest from the transit hub Kőbánya-Kispest in the city's southeast, along Üllői út to the city center, and then north to the district of Újpest.
Line 4 runs southwest to northeast from the transit hub of Budapest Kelenföld railway station in the city's most populous district of Újbuda across the inner city district of Józsefváros to Keleti railway terminal.
Lnes 1–3 converge at Deák Ferenc tér in the city centre, which was long the system's only transfer station. This bottleneck has been remedied by the opening of Line 4, which crosses Line 2 and Line 3 at different stations.
The Metro forms a separate system from the Budapest HÉV commuter rail, though Line 2 of the Metro provides transfers to the termini of two of the four HÉV lines. Integration of the incompatible HÉV system into the Metro is a long-term goal, and forms the basis of the proposed Line 5.Except for short stretches near the depots of each line, the system is mostly underground.
The Metro 1 (Officially: Millennium Underground Railway or M1) is the oldest line of the Budapest Metro system.
M1, the oldest of the metro lines operating in Budapest, has been in constant operation since 1896.
The original purpose of the first metro line was to facilitate transport to the Budapest City Park along the elegant Andrássy Avenue without building surface transport affecting the streetscape. The National Assembly accepted the metro plan in 1870 and German firm Siemens & Halske AG was commissioned for the construction, starting in 1894. It took 2000 workers using up-to-date machinery less than two years to complete. This section was built entirely from the surface (with the cut-and-cover method). Completed by the deadline, it was inaugurated on May 2, 1896, the year of the millennium (the thousandth anniversary of the arrival of the Magyars), by emperor Franz Joseph. One of these original cars is preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States.
The line ran underneath Andrássy Avenue, from Vörösmarty Square (the centre) to City Park, in a northeast-southwest direction. The original terminus was the Zoo (with extension to Mexikói út in 1973). It had eleven stations, nine underground and two (Állatkert and Artézi fürdő) overground. The length of the line was 3.7 km at that time; trains ran every two minutes. It was able to carry as many as 35,000 people a day (today 103,000 people travel on it on a workday).
The Metro 1 is listed as UNESCO WHS as part of Tokaji Wine Region Cultural Landscape.
Date of Inscription on the List of UNESCO WHS: 2002
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| Date of Issue: May 3, 2013 | Europa CEPT 2013 'The Postman Van' |
The miniature sheet of the Magyar Posta (Hungary) contains two different stamps featuring an old and a new postman van of Magyar Posta.
Thank you, Mihnea !
Sent on: May 27, 2014
Received on: June 2, 2014
1 comment:
Great subway mapcard!!!
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