It was the first underground railway line in continental Europe.
CNN chose the Budapest metro line 1 as one of the best in the world. In one of the compilations of the paper, they listed the 18 best metro systems in the world, including Budapest’s metro 1, which was the first underground railway line in continental Europe. It was completed in 1896, 33 years after the London Underground opened in 1863. CNN also notes this fact:
At the end of the 19th century, Hungarian engineers were among the earliest pioneers of electric drive technology, not least in the field of railways. Although London had already opened the first underground railway before them, it initially used traditional steam trains. Budapest was responsible for building the world’s first electrified underground metro system.
On the M1 line in Budapest, an overhead wire system was also used for the first time to supply power to the trains instead of the ground level contact rail. Metro 1, known to Budapest residents as the underground, is still in operation. The line runs on the Pest side of Budapest, between Mexikói út (next to Városliget) and Vörösmarty tér (near the famous Váci utca) and also stops at the Széchenyi Fürdő. The train carriages are yellow, and the line is typically marked with this color on maps.
CNN’s article goes a little more into the history of the line:
It was designed to transport city dwellers to the park without spoiling the elegant streetscape with trams and power lines. The line has undergone many changes over the past 120 years, but its tiny trains still carry 80,000 passengers a day, they write.
Other metro lines on the list include the London Underground, Beijing Metro, New York Metro, Moscow Metro, Kyiv Metro, Paris Metro and Hong Kong public transport.
