According to the plans, Metro Line 4 can be tested by passengers next spring. The stations will be tested in September, the metro cars in the end of the year (without passengers), the escalators will be ready by next February, and finally in March the future passengers can travel on the new Metro.
According to the plans, the railcars of the new Metro Line 4 set off for their first ride with passengers on the 31st March 2014. Journalists have already had the opportunity to test the cars at the end of July 2013 at the first part of the line, between Kelenföld and Keleti railway station. Mayor of Budapest István Tarlós said the metro is to be tested step by step: in September the stations, at the end of the year the railcars without passengers, in February 2014 the escalators and in March the cars with passengers will be tested. Most of the railcars that will run in the 7.5-kilometer long and 5.2-meter diameter tunnel have already arrived in Budapest. The costs of the construction of the underground were covered by the European Union (HUF 181 billion), the Hungarian state (HUF 196 billion) and the capital (HUF 75 billion).
The Construction Began in 2006
The idea of the construction of the Metro Line 4 first came up in 1972. According to the original plans the line would have connected Budafok with Astoria. The decision about the current line was made in 1996. But the new government formed in 1998 considered the investment too expensive, so it cancelled the subsidy. But then later, in 2004 the construction began after all. To make the investment more economical, in 2007 several supplemental establishments were cancelled from the plan. The construction of the stations begun in 2006, and the drilling of the tunnel started in 2007, at Keleti railway station. The Metro Line 4 is to be built in 3 phases, in the first the line between Kelenföld and Keleti railway station will be built (which is to be finished by March 2014), in the second the part between Keleti railway station and Bosnyák tér, and in the third the part between Kelenföld and Madárhegy will be built.
The First Test Run Was in 2012
The first test run of the cars on the Line 4 was in November 2012. An old Russian railcar borrowed from the Line 2 was used for the test, but later the trails between Kelenföld and Móricz Zsigmond körtér were also tested with using a new Alstom car. The first new Alstom car constructed especially for Line 4 arrived in Budapest also in November 2012.
Sources:
resourceinfo.hu
hu.wikipedia.org
