Transportation chaos expected in Budapest

 Budapest’s public transportation network will be thrown into a state of chaos later this month, as union leaders declared that their workers will walk off the job on May 27^th, 2008, in order to engage in an indefinite strike. Unionized employees of the Budapest Transport Corporation (BKV Zrt) are infuriated with plans to dramatically reduce service on some routes and scrap other routes altogether, in an effort to decrease the state-owned company’s sizeable operating losses. Although BKV and union officials have been in talks for the past several weeks, they appear to have hit an impasse and further progress is unlikely, unless the transit firm is willing to alter its planned cutbacks.

Over the course of the past several months, Budapest’s public transportation network, as well as Hungary’s train system, has both been paralyzed due to repeated strikes. The last walk-outs occurred on April 7^th and on April 18^th. This forced the majority of Budapest residents to walk or bike to work, as the Hungarian capital’s main roads are already notoriously congested at nearly all times of the day.

The May 27^th strike will include bus and trolley drivers, and may also involve metro drivers, although Attila Gulyas, the leader of the Metro Workers Union, has yet to confirm for certain if they will also walk off the job. Gulyas previously called for more talks and once referred to the May 27^th strike date as “hasty.”

More than 55 percent of Budapest residents use BKV vehicles to commute each day, making public transit a more popular form of transportation than passenger vehicles. The Hungarian capital’s massive public transportation system consists of three metro lines, 27 tram lines and four suburban commuter train routes. Electric buses (trolleys) run on an additional 14 routes, while the city also includes 213 regular bus lines. The construction of a fourth metro line (M4) is currently nearing completion and will likely open late next year or in early 2010