Metro Line M1 (Budapest Metro)

Metro Line M1
Overview
Status	Operational
Line number	Line 1 ("Yellow metro")
Termini	Vörösmarty tér Mexikói út
Stations	11
Service
Type	Rapid transit
System	Budapest Metro
Operator(s)	BKK
Rolling stock	Ganz MFAV
History
Opened	May 2, 1896 (1896-05-02)
Technical
Line length	4.4 km
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Electrification	550 V DC
Operating speed	60 km/h
Route map

Line 1 (Officially: Millennium Underground Railway, Metro 1 or M1) is the oldest line of the Budapest Metro, it was built from 1894 to 1896. It is known locally as "the small underground" ("a kisföldalatti"), while the M2, M3 and M4 are called "metró". It is the first underground on the European mainland, and the world's third oldest underground after the London Underground and Liverpool's Mersey Railway.

Line 1 runs northeast from the city center on the Pest side under Andrássy út to the Városliget, or City Park. Like Line 3, it does not serve Buda. Its daily ridership is estimated at 80,000.

History

Line 1 is the oldest of the metro lines in Budapest, having been in constant operation since 1896. The line was inaugurated on May 2, 1896, the year of the millennium (the thousandth anniversary of the arrival of the Magyars), by emperor Franz Joseph. The original name of the operator company was "Franz Joseph Underground Electric Railway Company" ("Ferenc József Földalatti Villamos Vasút Rt.").

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 the local Hungarian subsidiary company of the 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). 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 kilometres (2.3 mi) 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).

Reconstruction

1973

Between 1970 and 1973 the line underwent an extension and reconstruction of some sections. Deák tér station was relocated to connect with the M2 line with the old station becoming the Underground Museum. The rolling stock was changed to Ganz MFAV multiple units which still operate on the line. Finally the line’s left-hand traffic was changed into right-hand traffic.

The major change to the line was the extension to Mexikói út, the closure of Állatkert and the conversion of Széchenyi fürdő to an underground station.

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

1995

During the past hundred years, none of the renovations touched the tunnel section under Andrássy út. As a result, the infrastructure of the tunnel (the masonry, the load-bearing steel structures, the water insulation, the railway tracks, the architecture of the stations) haven’t changed at all or very little. From the middle of the 1980s, they started to show their age, and the serious damage and wear and tear prompted the necessity and urgency of a reconstruction.

Renovation works took place during a planned closure between 15 and 18 September 1995.

Rolling stock

• 1896 - 1973: Hungarian subsidiary of Siemens and Halske
• 1973 - present: Ganz MFAV

Stations and connections

(Vörösmarty tér – Mexikói út)
Travel Time minutes	Station	Travel Time minutes	Connection	Buildings / Monuments
0	Vörösmarty tér	11	2, 2B, 23 15	Vigadó, Café Gerbeaud, Ministry of Finance
1	Deák Ferenc tér	10	47, 48, 49 72 9, 16, 100E, 105, 178, 210, 210B, 216	Town Hall, Metro Museum (Földalatti Vasúti Múzeum)
2	Bajcsy–Zsilinszky út	9	72 9, 105, 210, 210B	St. Stephen's Basilica
3	Opera	8	70, 78 105, 210, 210B	Hungarian State Opera House
4	Oktogon	7	4, 6 105, 210, 210B	Theaters (Operette, Mikroszkóp, Miklós Radnóti,...)
5	Vörösmarty utca	6	73, 76 105, 210, 210B	House of Terror
6	Kodály körönd	5	105, 210, 210B
7	Bajza utca	4	105, 210, 210B
8	Hősök tere	3	72, 75, 79 20E, 30, 30A, 105, 210, 210B, 230	Museum of Fine Arts, Műcsarnok (Hall of Exhibitions), Városliget (City Park), Hősök tere (Heroes square)
9	Széchenyi fürdő	2	72	Széchenyi thermal bath, Zoo and Botanical Garden
11	Mexikói út	0	1, 1M, 3, 69 74, 74A, 82 25, 32, 225

Gallery about archives

• 

  Andrássy Avenue with the Millennium Underground (1896)

• 

  Completing the cut-and-cover construction

• 

  Line under construction at Oktogon

• 

  A train near the Hősök tere (before 1973)

• 

  Original rolling stock

• 

  Preserved heritage rolling stock at the museum

• 

  Old and new route map of M1 in City Park

• 

  Vörösmarty tér during the socialism

• 

  Deák Ferenc tér during the socialism

Gallery about the stations

• 

  Vörösmarty tér

• 

  Vörösmarty tér

• 

  Deák Ferenc tér

• 

  Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út

• 

  Opera

• 

  Oktogon

• 

  Vörösmarty utca

• 

  Vörösmarty utca

• 

  Kodály körönd

• 

  Bajza utca

• 

  Hősök tere

• 

  Hősök tere

• 

  tunnel

• 

  Széchenyi fürdő

• 

  Mexikói út

See also

• Tremont Street subway, Boston's first underground railway tunnel and the first one built worldwide, after Budapest's Line 1.