PHOTOS: Are You Hungary for Some Transit Photos???

[WMATAGMOAGH]

A few weeks ago, I posted some photos from a long layover in Brussels that I had back in November.  Back in 2011, I had an even longer layover (about 13 hours I think) in Budapest while flying from New York to Israel.  Needless to say, I didn't spend it out at the airport, but instead went in to town for some sightseeing and railfanning.  Due to my ongoing website rebuild and server upgrades, I didn't get around to posting the photos online until now.

Like in many European cities, fares are collected by the honor system.  If I recall correctly, the same tickets are valid for buses, the Metro, and trams.  I bought some tickets at a newspaper stand at the airport, and then took a bus to the nearest Metro station, I think it was an articulated bus of some kind but I really don't remember.  From there, I took Metro Line 3 in to town.  I didn't take any photos on the Metro, but what I remember is that the stations were all pretty similar to each other and hard to identify from the inside of the trains (the announcements weren't spectacular and there may have not been any to begin with) and that there was no railfan window.  The terminal station where I got on was above ground but everything else was underground.

I managed to visit the old synagogue, the House of Terror, and the Castle Hill, and took one tram ride and another bus (a minibus that travels around the Castle Hill area) as well as a funicular while going from place to place, and also getting photos of passing vehicles along the way, before heading back to the airport for my next flight.  The only tram I rode was the newer Siemens trams that are among the longest in all of Europe if not the longest (they look endless if you are looking through them on the interior), but they still had some older trams in operation.  Not sure if any of the fleet has been replaced since I was there.

Budapest is a lovely city, and definitely my favorite Eastern European city (I've also been to Krakow and Lviv), and not just because of the transit network!  I do hope to go back for more than just a few hours some day.

[WMAveteran]

Cool!  I like the triple articulated LRVs.  I wonder how long it would take to walk inside from one end to the other? I think it would feel like looking down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland  .

[Chargerdodge9]

Are some of those buses related to NABI buses by any chance?

[WMATAGMOAGH]

WMAVeteran, triple artics?  You mean the super long Alstom LRVs?  They are 54 meters long, or 177 feet.  Longer than a 4 car WMATA train. 

ChargerDodge, some of the buses are made by Ikarus so you could say they are related to NABIs.