Budapest Guide
Getting around
Buses, trams and trolleybuses
There is a good bus (autóbusz) network across the city, especially in Buda, where Moszkva tér (on the red metro line) and Móricz Zsigmond körtér (southwest of Gellért-hegy) are the main terminals. Bus stops are marked by a picture of a bus on a white background in a blue frame, and have timetables underneath; most buses run every ten to twenty minutes (utolsó kocsi indul … means "the last one leaves …"). On busier lines express buses – with an E at the end of the number – run along the same route making fewer stops: for example, the bus #7E that runs along most of the route of the #7. Night buses have three-digit numbers beginning with a 9 and run every hour or half-hour from around midnight or whenever the service they replace finishes: so the #906 follows the route of the #6 tram on the Nagykörút from half past midnight, when the tram stops, until 4.15am.
The network of yellow (or the newer orange) trams (villamos) is smaller, but they provide a crucial service round the Nagykörút and along the Pest embankment. Trolleybuses (trolibusz) mostly operate northeast of the centre near the Városliget. Interestingly, their route numbers start at 70 because the first trolleybus line was inaugurated on Stalin's 70th birthday in 1949. Trolleybus #83 was started in 1961, when Stalin would have been 83.
To get off buses, trams and trolleybuses, press the button above the door or on the handrail beside the door before the bus reaches the stop, which alerts the driver to open the door. On a very few trams, such as #2, you may have to open the doors yourself, pressing the button by the doors.
Most modern buses, trams and trolleybuses have dot displays that tell you the name of the next stop, and the driver may also mumble it.