As over five years of development, drilling and the hauling of parts came to an end, Lehel tér and Nagyvárad tér stations of the M3 Metro Line were handed over on Monday. With this, the renovation of Budapest’s longest metro line comes to an end after five and a half years.
‘Our goal is to serve the common good of the whole of Hungary, and the path to that also goes through the development of Budapest,’ said Minister Tibor Navracsics. He talked about how the investment is not only important for Budapest and Hungary but for the whole of Europe. ‘Such an investment cannot be a private matter for anyone; it required the cooperation of many,’ he said. According to him, this investment is a good example that despite the ‘political noises,’ tangible results can be achieved through collaboration. He believes that if the EU funds arrive, they can work together on similar projects with Budapest.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony expressed his gratitude to everyone who worked on the project. He emphasised his gratitude to the European Union, stating that since Hungary’s accession in 2004, this is perhaps one of the largest investments the Union has supported. He also thanked the government for their cooperation and ‘encouraged’ them to secure EU funds for Hungary. He thanked the designers, Budapest transport company BKK/BKV and Tibor Radnay, who was responsible for leading the project. He also expressed his gratitude to the workers, and the people of Budapest who remained patient throughout the protracted process.
‘I recommend this metro to those new-borns who have been born since we started the renovation; there are sixty thousand of them,’ he said. He dedicated the investment to the future citizens and then emphasised that the current world order is ‘cracking and creaking,’ which is why a new inclusive, green, and solidarity-based city needs to be built for the children. ‘Use it safely and healthily!’
Head of DG REGIO unit Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovenia at European Commission Agnés Monfret spoke about how the completion of the blue line contributes to making Budapest and Europe a greener place. Monfret highlighted that 75 per cent of the project was funded by the European Union because they recognised that this line also contributes to a carbon-neutral Europe. She presented a European Union flag to the city leadership: the flag has as many stars as the number of projects they supported in Budapest.
CEO of BKV Tibor Bolla read out a congratulatory message written by artificial intelligence, and then highlighted those whom the artificial intelligence did not write about: the 3,500 people without whom this renovation could not have been accomplished. As an interesting fact, he mentioned that they laid down 40,000 square meters of flooring over five years and used enough cables to reach all the way to Barcelona. The replacement buses for the metro covered a distance of 22,000 kilometres in recent years.
The CEO of BKK, Katalin Walter highlighted the ‘silent heroes’ of the project, who worked on the metro renovation for the past 2,000 days. ‘I hope that this is not the end but the beginning of something, as Budapest needs many more large projects like this.’ Finally, she expressed a warm welcome to everyone on the new metro from the afternoon onwards, emphasising that ticket purchase is, of course, required.
Former Mayor István Tarlós was also invited to the ceremony. Tarlós could not attend the Monday event due to other commitments, but in his letter, he congratulated Karácsony on the completion of the project: ‘Congratulations to you on the successful completion of the M3 renovation, which can rightly be considered a joint success of two city administrations and the government,’ he expressed.
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