A couple of Fridays ago Caboodle.hu offered an in-depth look at the dire financial state of BKV Zrt., Budapest’s public transport operator. In the two weeks since it was published, a few things have happened. One, the BKV got a temporary bailout from the city, but one that now looks like it will only keep the buses and metros going for a few more months. Also, we returned from vacation, and unlike our sister site are free to begin our report by saying that the people running the BKV are thieving idiot assholes who should be tied with barbed wire to the metro tracks and then run over by one of the system’s decrepit, Soviet-era cars. While being electrocuted.
Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s the latest on the never-ending BKV saga.
It May Not Be Running in May
According to a report yesterday in Népszabadság, the company will be forced to shut down in May if no agreement is reached on a new a long-term public service contract in line with EU rules. And this is going to be hard, because the rules clearly state such a contract may be signed only if BKV’s long-term financing is ensured, which it clearly isn’t. And while the City Council extended the company a new Ft 15 billion loan, more than half of that will go to pay off a another loan expiring at the end of the month, and there’s another honking, Ft 16 billion payment due in May. (Overall, the company’s debt has ballooned from Ft 10 billion in 2002 to more than Ft billion now.) According to Budapest mayor István Tarlós, the city simply has no more cash than what it handed over this week, and has otherwise already “done everything in its power” to keep the thing from shutting down.
So Bonuses All Around!
Meanwhile, on Wednesday Index reported that the two main unions representing BKV workers are planning to picket the company’s headquarters on February 7 to demand a new contract with better wages.
This followed reports on Monday that the BKV had paid out Ft 1.6 billion in bonuses to executives in recent years, payments that state audit office ÁSZ said were often unjustified, because, well, they were supposed to be for “extra work” done than hadn’t actually been done. And that’s not even to mention the “non-extra” work. Jesus.
Something is rotten in the state of Hungary …
Correction:
Make that: Too much is rotten …
pitty, Budapest has such a great public transport network. It would be a shame to see it lost in cutbacks or bankruptcy. I`m always impressed they can still keep those stone-aged Ikarus busses running. Love them!
Hey eds, where’s this image of the table and train from? It’s pretty.
make public transport free, run by volunteers…
BKV is free, isn’t it? I tried to buy a ticket for the No.2 tram today, but the ticket office in Fovam Ter was closed. The machine was broken. No ticket machines on the tram. So I could only assume that I was allowed to ride for free.
Luckily there were no inspectors on the tram. Probably because they are all told to lurk in the metro. At each metro stop, there are at least seven controllers milling around at the top of the escalators next to the broken ticket-stamping machines, doing pretty much nothing.
I think BKV isn’t so much a public transport system, as a very detailed, authentic, and interactive ‘living museum’ of a 1970s transport network.
Kontroll is on the right track. I am neither centrist, nor left-wing, but agree with the fact that “public transportation” should be an entity run by retired volunteers. No pay, no benefits. There are thousands of retired professionals who would be eager to serve and cut costs associated with a 500 meter tram ride that costs 400ft. As far as this photo goes? I’d make it a regular lunch spot for Hungarian MP’s. They could increase the Copper, Iron and Asbestos content of their lungs 100 fold within a few days…
@Pestiside staff, 1992 debt Ft 10 billion and now it is ??what?? Please do tell. Also, I wonder if you know if the hundreds of yellow people controlling the night buses have led to an increase in revenue or is just another sinister way for the owners of the sub-contract company to cream it in and also get more homeless off the streets? Thanks.
1. New temporary top management team from worlds of business and transport, preferably from outside Hungary, or at least 50-50 mix
2. Call a meeting with all management staff
3. While they are meeting secure all offices, ID all assets
4. Have management make list of responsibilities
5. Have management make list of persons directly supervised by them
6. Have management indicate to whom they report
7. Have management sign letters of resignation, undated
8. No property goes in or goes out of workplaces
9. 3 month review of all of above then restructure and replace
10. Install fare boxes on every form of transport. Either single ticket or “oyster” type ticket. Nothing else or you do not board.
11. Install TV cameras at Metro Entrances – fare jumpers to be prosecuted.
I could go on.