Budapest Tram

Tram · Budapest · BKK

36 lines · 310 stations · 215 interchanges

Every line drawn through its stations. Tap a line in the legend to hide or show it.

Lines

Quick facts

Operator
BKK coordinates the network and BKV operates the city trams.
Payment
Use BudapestGO, paper tickets, or a travelcard. Pay&GO bank-card tap is for the metro and 100E, not the normal tram network.
Paper tickets are validated on board. Travelcards do not need a separate validation after purchase.
Travelcard
Scenic line
Tram 2 runs along the Pest bank of the Danube, with Parliament and Buda across the river.
Tram 2
Workhorse line
Trams 4 and 6 run the Grand Boulevard and are some of the most important everyday lines in the city.
Tram 4Tram 6
Metro connection
Use the trams with the metro rather than treating them as a secondary tourist novelty.
Budapest Metro

Mike’s notes

Budapest's trams are part of the main system. They are often the better way to understand the city than diving underground.

The easy scenic ride is Tram 2 on the Pest side of the Danube. It gives you Parliament, the river, Buda Castle across the water, bridges, and the Central Market Hall end of town without turning it into a tour bus. If you have a travelcard, it is one of the cheapest sightseeing rides in Europe.

The practical ride is 4/6 on the Grand Boulevard. These are the everyday yellow workhorses through Margit híd, Nyugati, Oktogon, Blaha Lujza tér, and the south-Buda crossings. Use them when your day is shaped by neighborhoods rather than single landmarks.

I would think of Budapest as a rail city with two personalities. The metro handles the fast jumps and the weird historical prize of M1. The trams keep you above ground, along the river, and inside the actual street rhythm.

Short history

  1. 1887

    Electric trams arrive

    Budapest becomes an early electric-tram city, and the yellow tram network grows into one of the visual signatures of the streets.

  2. 1896

    The underground joins the surface network

    The Millennium Underground opens under Andrássy út, giving Budapest both one of Europe's great tram cities and the continent's first electric underground.

  3. Today

    Trams still do real work

    The network is not nostalgia. Lines 2, 4, 6, 19, 41, 47, and 49 are practical parts of visitor movement, especially along the Danube and the Grand Boulevard.

Sources and references (3)
  1. BKK
  2. BKK maps
  3. BudapestGO