Hunglish.orgBudapest is well-known for its excellent public transportation, but controlling private company BKV leaves a little to be desired in its methodology and government fund-leeching.
Written by Scott Savoie
One of the things I like about living in Budapest is the public transport.
BKV (or „Budapest Kriminals with Vehicles”) is a so-called private company that arose after the end of the socialist era. A couple of sharp pencils comandeered the entire fleet and some lucky stiffs were set up in the public transportation business.
These guys have found that collecting the money is where the money is and that running and maintaining means of conveyance is actually quite expensive; some BKV efficiency expert has apparently discovered that by running fewer and fewer buses, they can cut costs.
BKV have arranged a deal where the income is private (and doled out privately), but the investment expenditures are public (and doled out privately).
Every year or two, they come to the government with caps in hands saying „woe is us” … and how they need X milliard forints just to stay in business.
Then they get the money and another generation of BKV executives retire to Austria. Ah, the free market at work!
Anyway, these geniuses run the public transport.
Their job is complicated by the fact that many Hungarians refuse to pay for public transport ellenőr (ticket inspectors) be damned. These controllers seem to be working on some kind of commission basis.
One just wishes someone at BKV would figure out that getting one bus every five minutes is much better than getting six buses at the same time every half-hour.