Index – National – Did the red tram hit a dead end?

The sprocket, or officially Tram 60, is not in good condition, to put it mildly. It requires constant maintenance, most recently its traffic had to be temporarily stopped on November 1 of last year because the track and racks were so worn that they had to be replaced. BKV spends hundreds of millions on repairs.

The two-week break did not make much of a difference just because the route from Városmajor to the Széchenyi-hegy stop is used by only a few people, most of the passengers go down to the city by bus 21.

Sprockets treated as stepchildren were acquired by BKV back in 1973, and although they were not particularly old at the time of the great winter accident of 1987, it was already clear that the assemblies made in the Austro-Swiss cooperation were not made with the latest technology. .

Although the safety system was improved after two accidents that resulted in two deaths and several injuries, the safety equipment was improved, but aside from minor minor alterations (the last major intervention in November 2011), this week, a Methuselah from almost half a century has served passengers in the mountains.

More precisely, it would only serve because his condition has become so critical that

BKK justified the stop of the Gear Railway, which affected several trains taking advantage of the winter, with a period of less density of schedules, that is to say, carrying out previously planned inspections and carrying out repairs with longer delivery times. As they write, because of this, part of the seven-train vehicle fleet will not be able to handle traffic this winter as planned.

In addition, in the recent period, several trains scheduled for winter traffic also experienced, in a short period of time, independent engine failures, which temporarily required the temporary recall of the vehicle in question. In this case, in addition to maintaining traffic, we switched to a 20 minute vehicle tracking speed instead of the advertised 15 minute vehicle tracking.

In short, the state of the track section only allows very slow progress, so the travel time is long and, from an interchange point of view, it connects practically nothing with anything. Unsurprisingly, István Tarlós, the former mayor and prime minister in charge of transport infrastructure development, directly raised the question of abandoning the renewal of the cogwheel and finishing the line last May.

Mayor Gergely Karácsony and Zoltán Pokorni, the XII. however, the district leader agrees that the cogwheel is still worth maintaining; to include the section of the track below Széll Kálmán tér, and to extend the endpoint before Normafa into the bloodstream of public transport.

By the way, the idea of ​​renovation is not new at all, the Association of Urban and Suburban Transport (VEKE) has been fighting for the cogwheel since 2003, not without success. In addition to the constant mention of unsustainable technical conditions, civilians also brought a development study to the table in late 2004. The next big step came in 2007, when the main concept of civilians was developed in XII. The district mountain township embraced. At that time another, more detailed study was carried out, in which almost all the technical details were worked out, except for the location of the upper terminal.

In 2009, the project entitled Reconstruction and Expansion of the Cog Railway was included in the Budapest Transportation System Development Plan (BKRFT), making it one of the capital’s official developments (the later Balázs Mór plan and the current Budapest Mobility Plan (BMT)). In the category “Decided project”).

The newly formed BKK started work in 2011, but only in 2013 was it possible to raise enough money for the entire planning process. Planning progressed slowly because it was not considered important in the shadow of the construction of the metro, the Tarlós administration delayed the work so much that it did not issue property contributions for years to obtain public service licenses. This was finally done by Deputy Mayor Balázs Szeneczey on his last day of work.

Regardless, the licensed plans have been completed, the project has a valid building permit, and it also has construction plans, making it an investment that can be started immediately. As part of the Normafa project, the location of the new upper terminal has already been designated. Until now, the government has supported and provided billions of guilders for the acquisition of land, the expropriation of the Olympia hostel along the way, and then to break down and even handed over the state territories to the local government for the construction of the new section of Eötvös út. Meanwhile, the lower term of Fogas was completed within the framework of the reconstruction of Széll Kálmán tér. However, half the development is missing.

The project seems stalled at this point, which BKK justifies for simple economic reasons. However, Lajos Dorner, president of VEKE (who was one of the authors of the first original study and accompanied the planning process), would consider a conditional hiring conceivable. Based on the offers received, a financing decision could be made, for which there are not many possibilities.

Resources from the European Reconstruction Fund (FRR) could be used for this, in which the government has billions for transport development. There are also hundreds of billions of resources from the Cohesion Fund’s Transport Operational Program (MIOP) for the next EU cycle, and the Union development bank, the EIB, is also offering loans to the capital on conditions. very favorable (with a government guarantee). . The EIB has so far expressed its willingness to finance the project, with rules allowing 50%, but using cohesion funds this could reach 90%. As cogwheels can also be seen as an investment in climate protection, the new rules allow the bank to finance up to 75 percent of the total cost alone. With these solutions, the government and the capital would have to add only a small deductible. But if this is not the case either, since half of the costs are due to the purchase of vehicles, they could also be leased (manufacturer loan). So anyone who says they can’t get money for it really doesn’t want to, Lajos Dorner stresses.

The current sprocket service is bleeding from various injuries, and residents of the area are mainly complaining about the volume of the bolted iron track of the 3-meter gratings. The new technology would allow to weld a track of 12 meter rack sections.

Due to wear and tear, vehicles now in motion can only travel 18 km / h downhill and only 15 km / h downhill. This explains why it is not competitive with the bus 21. Perhaps the most important development goal is to make the hanger faster than the bus. This requires a speed of 40 km / h upwards and 30 km / h downwards. The schedule has already been developed for follow-up periods of 12 and 10 minutes, respectively. Thus, it will be possible to reach Normafa from Széll Kálmán tér earlier than with bus 21, which would allow not only diesel buses, but also car traffic outside the mountain route.

Passengers are expected to be able to ride the new cogwheel train three years after the conclusion of the contract with the winner of the public procurement and the start of construction. Until then, however, they will still need a lot of patience.

(Cover image: Csaba Jászai / MTI)