Budapest Council votes yes on loan for Metro 3 upgrade

Budapest, August 25 (MTI) – The Municipal Council of Budapest on Monday voted to move ahead on the financing of renovations on the city’s Metro Line 3, including making preparations for a loan to fund the project.

Only representatives of the opposition E-PM party voted against.

The priority investment includes calling a tender for the refurbishment of the line’s Soviet-era trains.

After the vote, Budapest’s mayor Istvan Tarlos said the city would move to start train renovations but further negotiations with the government were needed to clarify the financing of the infrastructure upgrade.

Fully 220 carriages will be renewed, extending their lifespan by another 20-25 years and costing 60-65 billion forints (EUR 192-207m), while buying new carriages would have cost 90 billion forints, he said. Refurbishment of the carriages is scheduled to be completed by the turn of 2015/16, he added.

Tarlos said that the complete renovation of the tunnels, tracks, the control system and the stations could be finished by 2019. He added that he would consult the development minister on possible ways of using European Union funds to cover a part of this 100 billion forint project.

The mayor said that the replacement of the tracks, which started a year and a half ago, would be completed next year.

Tarlos insisted that the line is safe.

The Socialists voted in favour of the motion on Monday, but Norbert Trippon, deputy leader of the party’s Budapest chapter, earlier criticised the project’s financing, calling it “outrageous” that the city was taking out a “huge loan”. The government should draw in other funds, even at the cost of cancelling “prestige investment projects”, he said.