Loading ...Employees of the Budapest Transport Corporation (BKV Zrt.) will walk off the job early Friday morning and will remain on the picket lines for the entire day. As such, there will be absolutely no metro, tram, bus or commuter rail service in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, all Friday. The strike will also affect night-time bus routes, starting from midnight tonight, and service will only be restored to normal levels early Saturday morning. Media outlets are warning that it will also be exceedingly difficult to find a taxi in the city, which means that tourists will be especially hard hit, as they will likely find it almost impossible to get around, unless they rent a car. Based on similar public transit strikes organized over the course of the past month, however, congestion on most major boulevards, ring-roads and bridges in Budapest will become a significant problem, especially in the morning, before 9:00am and in the afternoon after 4:00pm.
According to a poll published in the Magyar Nemzet daily newspaper, up to one third of adult Hungarians will not be going to work on Friday, due to the strike, while roughly a third of all school children are also planning on staying home. More than 27 percent or respondents who will go about their daily duties told pollsters that they plan on travelling by car, while 17 percent will go by bicycle. An additional 14 have decided to walk to their destination during the strike.
Budapest has three metro lines, which serve as the backbone of the city’s public transit system. All subway service, however, will come to a halt tonight, approximately 10 minutes before midnight. The service will only start up again on Saturday, at around 5:00am.
