New Telebusz services in Budapest suburban areas

BKK Centre for Budapest Transport launched new
ondemand public transport services on 4 November 2013
in two suburban areas in the hilly Óbuda part of Budapest,
where due to territorial circumstances until recently no
service could be provided.

BKK continuously seeks to pay particular attention to
passengers’ needs and examines options to develop and
expand the supply. As a result, new on-demand “Telebusz”
services were launched recently to connect these areas to
the regular urban transport network.

A new bus line, bus 219 will be in operation only if
passengers call in advance to indicate their travel request.
Another line (bus 260) will serve the suburbs of
Csúcshegy, with optional route extension by request. On
demand public transport service is a well-known concept
in several cities abroad and in several towns in Hungary,
neither is the service unknown in Budapest as night bus
line 937 has been in service on demand for nearly 10
years. Through this recent development, BKK aims to
serve areas where no public transport has been provided
so far on account of the narrow streets, next to promote
on-demand transport services and gain relevant experience
from it. The advantages of the service are that the buses
run on the actual routes where there is passenger need,
thus vehicles do not run empty while no environmental
burden is presented by needless noise and air pollution.

Furthermore, the timetables are adjusted to the schedule
of the nearby suburban railway line. Regular BKK fares
apply on both new lines, so the usual single tickets or
passes can be used, and travel is free of charge for the
entitled passengers. Tickets are available on board from
the driver, as well. The newly launched Telebusz is an extra
service in both cases to provide and improve public transport in areas that have not been covered before.

A public consultation process regarding the routing has
preceded the introduction of the services. Plans have been
modified accordingly. We trust that our passengers are
going to get accustomed to and eventually start to like
these new services. Later on, incorporating experiences
gathered during this pilot, we consider launching similar
services to areas hitherto not connected to the BKK
transport network.

Tamás Kajdon, Business Development and Customer
Relations Centre Budapest Transport