Line 1 (Budapest Metro)

Line 1
Overview
Stations 11
Line number Line 1 ("Yellow metro")
Technical
Line length 4.4 km
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 12 in)
Electrification 550 V DC
Operating speed 60 km/h
Route map

Metro 1

Legend
Mexikói út
Széchenyi fürdő
Hősök tere
Bajza utca
Kodály körönd
Vörösmarty utca
Oktogon
Opera
Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út
Deák Ferenc tér   
Vörösmarty tér
 Detailed track map 
Mexikói út
Széchenyi fürdő
Hősök tere
Bajza utca
Kodály körönd
Vörösmarty utca
Oktogon
Opera
Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út
Deák Ferenc tér
Vörösmarty tér

The Metro 1 (Officially: Millennium Underground Railway or M1) is the oldest line of the Budapest Metro system. Known in Budapest simply as "the underground" ("a földalatti"), as the M2, M3 and M4 are called "metró". It is the second oldest underground railway in the world[1] (the first being the London Underground's Metropolitan Railway), and the first on the European mainland. It was built from 1894 to 1896. In 2002, it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[2]

Metro 1 runs northeast from the city center on the Pest side under Andrássy út to the Városliget, or City Park. Like Metro 3, it does not serve Buda.

History

M1, the oldest of the metro lines operating in Budapest, has been in constant operation since 1896.

The original purpose of the first metro line was to facilitate transport to the Budapest City Park along the elegant Andrássy Avenue without building surface transport affecting the streetscape. The National Assembly accepted the metro plan in 1870 and German firm Siemens & Halske AG was commissioned for the construction, starting in 1894. It took 2,000 workers using up-to-date machinery less than two years to complete. This section was built entirely from the surface (with the cut-and-cover method). Completed by the deadline, it was inaugurated on May 2, 1896, the year of the millennium (the thousandth anniversary of the arrival of the Magyars), by emperor Franz Joseph. One original car is preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States.

The line ran underneath Andrássy Avenue, from Vörösmarty Square (the centre) to City Park, in a northeast-southwest direction. The original terminus was the Zoo (with extension to Mexikói út in 1973). It had eleven stations, nine underground and two (Állatkert and Artézi fürdő) overground. The length of the line was 3.7 km at that time; trains ran every two minutes. It was able to carry as many as 35,000 people a day (today 103,000 people travel on it on a workday).

Stations and connections

Station Connection Buildings/Monuments
Vörösmarty tér 2
15, 115
Vigadó, Café Gerbeaud, Ministry of Finance
Deák Ferenc tér ,
47, 48, 49
9, 15, 16, 105, 115
Town Hall, Metro Museum (Földalatti Vasút Múzeum)
Bajcsy–Zsilinszky út 9, 105 St. Stephen's Basilica
Opera 105 Hungarian State Opera House
Oktogon 4, 6
4-6 (tram replacement), 6 (tram replacement), 105
Theaters (Operette, Mikroszkóp, Miklós Radnóti,...)
Vörösmarty utca 73, 76, 105 House of Terror
Kodály körönd 105
Bajza utca 105
Hősök tere 72, 75, 79
20E, 30, 30A, 105, 230
Museum of Fine Arts, Műcsarnok (Hall of Exhibitions), Városliget (City Park), Hősök tere (Heroes square)
Széchenyi fürdő 72 Széchenyi thermal bath, Zoo and Botanical Garden
Mexikói út 3, 69
74, 74A
25, 32, 225

Gallery

References

  1. Kogan Page: Europe Review 2003/2004, fifth edition, Wolden Publishing Ltd, 2003, page 174
  2. UNESCO
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