The 4 Metro

Finally it seems that Metro 4 is going to be handed over to the public this year!In the city of Budapest, the Metro 4 has become a running gag, a symbol of getting nothing done, the very mention of it has become simultaneous with procrastination and of doing a half assed job. But now, that has all changed, and it seems that FIDESZ is going to take the credit for building the metroline that was started in the middle of the 90s.

A Short History

The idea of having a Metro line 4 was born in 1976, but back then the line would have gone all the way from south Buda up until the Eastern end of Pest, traversing a large chunk of the city. In the end, a much smaller and less practical route was agreed upon, and work began on metro line 4 in 1998, just in time for the reelection of the then current mayor, Demszky. The metro line 4 was then waved as a promise only during campaigns, even though construction was slowly but surely going underway, with no end in sight and quite a few scandals of stolen money, mislocated funds, and the usual kleptomania that surrounds any and all large projects in this fair city. In 2001 the permit for building the metro line4 was revoked, and it was not until 2004 that real and actual work began on the metro. Ten years later, we now have something that Budapest residents have been waiting for with bated breath.

New Promises

The current major István Tarlós is none less than the 5th mayor to promise that they will deliver the metro line 4, and the current due date, March 31st 2014 is the 21st date that has been set, with the earliest being 2003 july. You can see why Hungarians are so sceptical and so pragmatic about this issue, as the promise of getting a new metro has been used as nothing but political propaganda and a PR campaign to get votes and supporters. Is this new date actually a due date, or is it just another promise? Only time will tell….

Route

The new metro will be running between the Kelenföld railway station and Keleti pályaudvar railway terminal. In between, the metro will touch on the XIth, Ist, Vth, VIIIth and XIVth districts in numerous places. But with buses and trams running 24 hours a day 7 days a week in every single corner of the city, this is really a giant waste of time, money and work hours, not to mention EU funding that could have been spent on improving conditions for us, the voters.

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