Stations 10 Website www.metro4.hu | Line number Line 4 ("Green metro") Electrification 750 V DC | |
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Line length 7.4 km
Phase II (planned): 3.2 km
Phase III (planned): 2.1 km Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ⁄2 in) | ||
The Metro 4 (Officially: M4, South Buda–Rákospalota (DBR) Line, Unofficially: Green Line), is the fourth, or green line of Budapest Metro, and opened on 28 March 2014.
Contents
The first section, 7.4 km in length and consisting of ten stations, connects the southwestern Kelenföld vasútállomás located in Buda, and the eastern Keleti pályaudvar in Pest, under the River Danube. While three additional sections — one an eastern extension to Bosnyák tér, the second west to Virágpiac, and a third further east to Újpalota — have been planned, these remain unfunded by the Budapest city government and the European Union.
Before Metro 4 was built, only Metro 2 served the Buda side of the river. Daily ridership has been estimated at 421,000. The line operates using fully automated Alstom Metropolis train sets, which are also installed on the M2 line.
In Hungary the construction of the line has been widely criticised as having an outdated route, despite the generally unchanged city-structure and density of microdistricts. The line has been noted for its high costs and inordinate delays — 17 in total — during construction.
History
The first plans for a fourth metro line were developed in 1972, the line was planned between South Buda and Rákospalota/Újpalota, later to Zugló. The first decree was made in 1976 and the government wanted to start the construction in 1978, however the project was ceased in 1978, they preferred the extension of Line 3.
The construction work eventually started in 2004, and the first section with 10 stations opened in 2014.
M4 has a transfer station for Line 2 at Keleti pályaudvar and for Line 3 at Kálvin tér station.
Controversies
The construction of the line has been widely criticized as slow and incompetent. Critics have panned the constant delays of evidence of widespread government corruption.
Delays
The Budapest city government delayed the opening of the line 17 times. Gábor Demszky, the liberal mayor of Budapest from 1990 to 2010, originally promised in 1998 that the first section of the line would be open by 2003. However, Viktor Orbán's first government (1998-2002) withheld funds necessary for starting the construction. The project restarted in 2003 under the socialist-liberal national government. In 2004, with construction of the metro still hadn't started, Demszky delayed the opening until 2008. The construction works finally started in 2006, in that year the opening was reworked to 2009. It was again reworked in April 2007 to 2010; in October 2007 to 2011.
In 2008, Gusztáv Klados, the line's project manager, announced that the opening would be further delayed until the end of 2011. In 2009, he stated the opening would be delayed until 2012. Later that year, Klados further delayed the opening until 2012, and one year later, in 2010, István Tarlós, Demszky's Fidesz successor as mayor, pushed the likely opening back to as late as 2015.
In 2011, deputy mayor Gyula Hutiray reaffirmed the 2015 completion date. Tarlós later clarified that a 2013 or 2014 opening were not outside the realm of possibility.
The line was opened by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on March 28, 2014, one week before the parliamentary elections that saw his party, Fidesz, reelected to a second supermajority. Orbán made several references to his government's extensive infrastructure projects during the ceremony. Contrary to the transport facilities that were the infrastructure projects of the socialists, the projects started by Orbán's government were mainly cultural facilities.
Costs
Construction of the line cost 1.5 billion Euros, or 1.5% of Hungary's annual GDP, of which 600 million came from European Union funds. According to estimates the first section of the M4 will have cost approximately 452 billion HUF to build alongside an annual operating cost of 6 billion HUF, which is fourfold the operating costs of the M2 and M3 combined. These funds, critics claim, could have been funneled into other large-scale transportation projects such as the connection of M2 to the Gödöllő HÉV or the construction of new tram lines. Rumors that the M4 would be the most expensive metro line ever built, however, have been rebuffed by contractors.
Route
Critics have noted that the route served by Line 4 was already extensively served by a variety of tram (19, 47, 49) and bus (7, 7A, 7E, 173E) lines. The line has also been criticized for densely placed stations, some, such as Móricz Zsigmond körtér and Újbuda-központ, within a few hundred meters of one-another. On the other hand, the city government has conducted research showing that the new line will reduce travel times on an already overused transit corridor, because travel in the subway is not slowed by the traffic jams of the surface.
Unfunded extensions
Despite long-term plans, which included the eventual extension to Rákospalota, future extensions to the M4 are uncertain. Tarlós's Fidesz city government eliminated funding for the second phase of the line after taking over from Demszky's government, and the European Union has refused to provide additional funds. Some critics claim that without the additional trackage, the current state of the line amounts to "several hundred-million forints thrown out the window."
Operation
Driverless operation is active since the second year of the line's history.