The renovation of metro line 3 will not be ready by the new deadlines. The reconstruction of the entire line was originally due to be completed in early 2023, but the Budapest Transport Company (Budapesti Közlekedési Vállalat, BKV) has confirmed that traffic will only resume in the second quarter.
Passenger traffic on the M3 metro line can only start in the second quarter of 2023, BKV confirmed to VG.hu, which means that the project has been delayed by a quarter of a year compared to the latest plans.
Another three-month delay
At the end of September last year, the capital’s company told VG.hu that the entire metro line 3 is scheduled to be opened to passenger traffic in the first quarter of 2023. The same is also stated on the official website of the metro renovation. The three-month delay, which has just been officially announced, has been made up in just over a year.
Even after the handover, travel is not yet possible
According to current plans, the renovation work will be completed by March 2023, but will be followed by inspections and trial runs. Only after these have been completed will passenger services on Metro Line 3 be able to start.
“Although regulatory inspections and trial runs will start before the March handover, this is a process that will be fully completed in the second quarter of 2023,” they explained. However, an earlier handover of the section, in the first quarter of 2023, has been promised, together with the completion of the inspections and trial runs.
No clear communication about the delay
On the M3 line, 500,000 people travel on weekdays. It is the busiest public transport route in Hungary. Anything that happens on this section of the line is bound to affect the daily lives of the masses. In comparison, the capital’s communication about the significant delay in the renovation of metro line 3 is somewhat surprising.
According to MTI, Tibor Bolla, the general director of the metro, remarked in passing, as a positive news, that “in the second quarter of next year, the traffic on the entire line of metro line 3 can start”. However, as described above, this actually means a major delay in the project – and not for the first time, as the handover had first been postponed from December to January, and now from January to March.