Karacsony: Budapest public transport tickets to increase to HUF 450

The price of the single ticket will go up from 350 forints.

Karacsony said in a Facebook post that tickets bought on the spot would cost 600 forints, blocks of ten tickets 4,000 forints but the price of monthly passes will remain unchanged.

“We must increase the price of Budapest public transport tickets so that the price of monthly passes need not be changed and Budapest public transport is secured”, he said.

The price of single tickets has been unchanged for ten years while railways MAV, long-distance bus company Volan and several other cities increased their prices in recent months.

“We in Budapest had no other choice either,” he said.

Karacsony said the government’s policy of introducing new charges on Budapest had put public transport under threat. Taxes on Budapest residents increased to 15-fold, and currently the metropolitan council finances the government instead of the other way round, he added. At the same time, “we are operating and developing public transport”, he said, citing the introduction of several hundred new buses, fifty new trolley buses, and modern trams in service in recent years, and the completion of the M3 metro revamp project.

Compared with other Hungarian cities, Budapest public transport single tickets are among the cheapest, and the current rate of increase is the “unavoidable minimum”, he said.

Budapest transport company BKK said the increase was necessary as a result of economic trends in recent years, a drastic increase in energy prices and inflation in general. BKK ticket revenues were 16 percent lower at the end of 2022 than in 2019, while expenses drastically increased, it added.