Next Stop, Kerepesi Cemetery

Happy Public Transport Day! In the slim chance you didn't already know, today marks the beginning of European Mobility Week, the annual celebration of urban transport and "sustainable urban mobility" in Europe and, somewhat oddly, Brazil, Japan and a few other non-European places. So get out of your car, and onto a bus, tram or metro. Well, that is unless your main public transport option is the bus. According to daily Magyar Hírlap, there is a slight problem with some of the buses being operated in Buda by the Budapesti Közlekedési Vállalat (BKV), the capital's mass-transit operator. Okay, so the problem is not so slight: due to a faulty design, the buses have a tendency to burst into flames.

According to the article, the Hungarian-made Ikaruses are not the only problems facing the BKV's bus drivers. Because of the poor condition of many of Budapest's roads, the BKV had to have its new fleet of Volvo buses specially reinforced. But as of yet there have been no reports of the Swedish buses spontaneously catching fire.

Unfortunately, the BKV is apparently not doing much to keep the Ikarus buses from combusting. Out of remaining 62 Ikarus IK-412s in service (two have burned) only 25 have been suitably modified. The others are simply being equipped with an additional fire extinguisher each. Well, look at the bright side: at least Ikarus doesn't make airplanes.