Line 1 (Budapest Metro)

Line 1 (Budapest Metro)
Overview
Stations	11
Line number	Line 1 ("Yellow metro")
Technical
Line length	4.4 km
Track gauge	1435 mm
Electrification	550 V DC
Operating speed	60 km/h
Route map

Metro 1
Vörösmarty tér Deák Ferenc tér - M2, M3 tr. Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út Opera Oktogon Vörösmarty utca Kodály körönd Bajza utca Hősök tere Széchenyi fürdő Mexikói út

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"), it is the second oldest underground railway in the world (the first being the London Underground's Metropolitan Line), 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.

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 2000 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 of these original cars is preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum.

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 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).

• 1896: Gizella tér (today Vörösmarty tér) - Artézi fürdő (today Széchenyi fürdő)
• 1973: Széchenyi fürdő - Mexikói út

Stations and connections

Station	Connection	Buildings/Monuments
Vörösmarty tér	2, 2A	Vigadó, Café Gerbeaud, Ministry of Finance
Deák Ferenc tér	M2, M3 9, 16, 105, 109 47, 49	Town Hall, Metro Museum (Földalatti Vasút Múzeum)
Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út	105	St. Stephen's Basilica
Opera	105	Hungarian State Opera House
Oktogon	4, 6 105	Theaters (Operette, Mikroszkóp, Miklós Radnóti,...)
Vörösmarty utca	73, 76	House of Terror
Kodály körönd	105
Bajza utca	105
Hősök tere	20E, 30, 30A, 105 75, 79	Museum of Fine Arts, Műcsarnok (Hall of Exhibitions), Városliget (City Park), Hősök tere (Heroes square)
Széchényi fürdő	72	Széchenyi thermal bath, Zoo and Botanical Garden, Vidámpark (Fun Fair)
Mexikói út	3, 69 74, 74A 25, 225, 32

Gallery

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  Andrássy Avenue with the Millennium Underground (1896)

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  Completing the cut-and-cover construction

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  A train near the Hősök tere (before 1973)

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  Original rolling stock

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  Opera

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  Line 1 depot

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  Train at Vörösmarty square

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  Station entry at Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út

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  Preserved historic rolling stock in museum

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  Line under construction at Oktogon