Magyar Építők, a Hungarian construction news outlet regularly reports about the revamp of Budapest’s most used underground line, the M3. More people use this underground on a workday than the entire Hungarian railway system. Therefore, the BKV Zrt renews it segment by segment to avoid public transport chaos.

The SWIETELSKY Építő Kft. takes care of the last, third segment of the work between the Lehel and Nagyvárad Squares, while another company of this group, the Swietelsky Vasúttechnika Kft., is responsible for the renovation of the railway lines and the relevant technology.

The BKV Zrt. announced on the project’s official website that they were about to finish the work at the Kálvin Square, Corvin District and Semmelweis Clinics Stations soon. All of the three renewed metro stations have been equipped with so-called sloping lifts to help the disabled to use the underground. Three more stations will have such services: Ferenciek Square, Arany János Street and Nyugati Railway Station.

It will be the first time in Hungary that passengers can use this service. The sloping elevators will run in the escalator shaft, right next to the stairs, Zoltán Kurucz, the designer said. He highlighted that the elevator would accommodate eight people or a wheelchaired person and his attendant at a time. Furthermore, it would move at the same speed as the escalator.

According to the designer, the operation of the sloping track elevator is “almost 100 percent identical” to that of the Budavár cable car. To this day, only Stockholm and New York have such slopes in the metro. Interestingly, Swedish, Greek and French experts are also participating in the construction of the new Budapest metro stations, added Zoltán Kurucz – pestubuda.hu reported before.

The three M3 stations are nearly completed but operational tests are still taking place. For example, constructors test the new smoke and heat extraction systems.

During the smoke tests, they try to model a possible fire emergency. They aim to create a system guaranteeing passengers to reach the exits before they start suffocating due to the smoke.

Authorities have already approved the system at the Semmelweis Clinics and Corvin Stations. Magyar Épitők says that they would soon test the Kálvin Square Station, as well.