Back on Monday, Caboodle.hu had a brief story about Budapest Mayor István Tarlós ordering a “technical check-up” along the full length of the city’s third metro line. It seems to have left out an important detail!
As it turns out, Tarlós’s request was preceded by an open letter from a member of the BKV’s repair staff essentially saying the whole thing is one big accident waiting to happen, so don’t blame them when the emergency-services teams start hauling bodies out of the tunnels.
According to this staffer, the tracks are now in such bad condition that even introducing a 40 km/h speed limit would not help to prevent incidents such as that which recently occurred at the Népliget station, where two large lighting fixtures fell from the ceiling.
Worse, from the letter it seems the repair staff of the metro, one of whom is pictured above, are not only terrified about the threat to passengers, but of coming forward. “I fear for my job and the safety of the passengers but my colleagues and I are just too afraid to come out and tell this to people publicly,” the letter said. So maybe it’s a good time to switch to the bus. On the other hand… [index.hu/photo via origo.hu]
all i can say is that the adventure of riding the BKV vehicles in budapest will cost you 1,550 Ft./day ticket (approx. $7) while riding with a day ticket in L. A. is $5 luxury a la hungary
But the big difference is that in LA you are not riding the bus but just waiting, maybe they just happen to come.