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Line 1 (Officially: Millennium Underground Railway, Metro 1 or M1) is the oldest line of the Budapest Metro, it was built from 1894 to 1896. It is known locally as "the small underground" (''"a kisföldalatti"''), while the M2, M3 and M4 are called "metró". It is the first underground on the European mainland, and the world's third oldest underground after the London Underground and Liverpool's Mersey Railway. Line 1 runs northeast from the city center on the
Pest Pest or The Pest may refer to: Science and medicine * Pest (organism), an animal or plant deemed to be detrimental to humans or human concerns ** Weed, a plant considered undesirable * Infectious disease, an illness resulting from an infection ** ...
side under Andrássy út to the ''
Városliget The City Park ( hu, Városliget; german: Stadtwäldchen) is a public park close to the centre of Budapest, Hungary. It is a rectangle, with an area of , located in District XIV of Budapest, between ''Hungária körút'', ''Ajtósi Dürer sor'', ...
'', or City Park. Like Line 3, it does not serve
Buda Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
. Its daily ridership is estimated at 80,000.


History

Line 1 is the oldest of the metro lines in Budapest, having been in constant operation since 1896. The line was inaugurated on May 2, 1896, the year of the millennium (the thousandth anniversary of the arrival of the
Magyars Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Uralic ...
), by emperor Franz Joseph. The original name of the operator company was "Franz Joseph Underground Electric Railway Company" (). The original purpose of the first metro line was to facilitate transport to the Budapest City Park along the elegant
Andrássy Avenue The House of Andrássy is the name of a Hungarian noble family of very ancient lineage that was prominent in Hungarian history. The full family name is ''Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka''. ''Csíkszentkirály'' is a town in modern- ...
without building surface transport affecting the streetscape. The National Assembly accepted the metro plan in 1870, and the local Hungarian subsidiary company of the '' Siemens & Halske AG'' was commissioned for the construction, starting in 1894. It took 2,000 workers using up-to-date machinery less than two years to complete. This section was built entirely from the surface (with the cut-and-cover method). One original car is preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States.https://trolleymuseum.org/collections/international/ The line ran underneath Andrássy Avenue, from Vörösmarty Square (the centre) to City Park, in a northeast-southwest direction. The original terminus was the Zoo (with extension to Mexikói út in 1973). It had eleven stations, nine underground and two (Állatkert and Artézi fürdő) overground. The length of the line was at that time; trains ran every two minutes. It was able to carry as many as 35,000 people a day (today 103,000 people travel on it on a workday).


Reconstruction


1973

Between 1970 and 1973 the line underwent an extension and reconstruction of some sections. Deák tér station was relocated to connect with the M2 line with the old station becoming the Underground Museum. The rolling stock was changed to
Ganz MFAV The (), known in official records as , and alternatively known as , or , is a type of metro car which was manufactured by Hungarian companies ("Ganz-MÁVAG Locomotive, Carriage and Machine Factory") and ("Ganz Electric Factory"). The metro c ...
multiple unit A multiple-unit train or simply multiple unit (MU) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined together, which when coupled to another multiple unit can be controlled by a single driver, with multiple-unit train contr ...
s which still operate on the line. Finally the line’s left-hand traffic was changed into right-hand traffic. The major change to the line was the extension to Mexikói út, the closure of Állatkert and the conversion of Széchenyi fürdő to an underground station. *1896: Gizella tér (today Vörösmarty tér) - Artézi fürdő (today Széchenyi fürdő) *1973: Széchenyi fürdő - Mexikói út


1995

The renovations carried out over the past hundred years have not affected the tunnel section under Andrássy út. As a result, the tunnel - the masonry, the load-bearing steel structures, the insulation against water, the railway track structure, the architecture of the stations - changed little or not at all. From the middle of the 1980s, the serious damage and wear and tear that foreshadowed the necessity and urgency of reconstruction could already be detected. The ceremonial handover took place in the presence of Mayor Gábor Demszky on September 15 in 1995 as part of an interesting cultural program. What was novel about it was that the audience sat in chairs at the stations, and the production was provided by the artists who got off the trains arriving at the station. Finally, on September 18, passengers were able to take possession of the renewed and beautified small underground. We builders hope it will be used at least as carefully as we built it; then it will continue to serve the traveling public for the next hundred years.


Rolling stock

*1896 - 1973: Hungarian subsidiary of
Siemens and Halske Siemens & Halske AG (or Siemens-Halske) was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens. It was founded on 12 October 1847 as ''Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske'' by Werner von Siemens and Johann Geo ...
*1973 - present:
Ganz MFAV The (), known in official records as , and alternatively known as , or , is a type of metro car which was manufactured by Hungarian companies ("Ganz-MÁVAG Locomotive, Carriage and Machine Factory") and ("Ganz Electric Factory"). The metro c ...


Stations and connections


Gallery

Image:Foldalatti Andrassy.png,
Andrássy Avenue The House of Andrássy is the name of a Hungarian noble family of very ancient lineage that was prominent in Hungarian history. The full family name is ''Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka''. ''Csíkszentkirály'' is a town in modern- ...
with the Millennium Underground (1896) File:1896-17 vasút Andrássy út Klösz György 2.JPG, Completing the cut-and-cover construction Image:Budapest metro Heroes square.jpg, A train near the Hősök tere (before 1973) File:Budapest subway 1896.jpg, Original rolling stock Image:Budapest Foeldalatti Opera Station.jpg, Opera File:Underground Budapest M1.jpg, Train-set at Vörösmarty square File:KisföldBajcsyleÉ.JPG, Station entry at
Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út Bajcsy-Zsilinszky street ( hu, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út) is a principal street in the centre of the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. It runs north from Deák Ferenc square to outside Nyugati railway station. Towards its southern end it is joine ...
File:Budapest Metro Museum Deak ter.jpg, Preserved heritage rolling stock at the museum File:Vasút oktogon 1896-17 Klösz György.JPG, Line under construction at Oktogon File:Varosliget M1.png, Old and new route map of M1 in City Park File:The Millennium Underground Railway.ogv


See also

* Tremont Street subway, Boston's first underground railway tunnel and the first one built worldwide, after Budapest's Line 1.


References

{{Budapest Metro Budapest Metro lines Railway lines opened in 1896 World Heritage Sites in Hungary Industrial archaeological sites in Hungary