BKV is the unified public transportation company of the city of Budapest, Hungary.The city-owned company runs a very extensive network of surface mass transportation, including diesel buses, electric trolley buses, trams and municipal railway s. The underground railway network is less extensive, including two full-sized metros (M2 and M3) and one smaller sized underground tramway called MFAV. A third full sized metro (called M4) is about to be built.
About 55% of traffic in the 1.7 million populated Budapest is still carried by BKV vehicles, with 45% remaining for private cars. During the socialist era, Budapest had 2 million residents and the public vs. private travel proportion was 80% / 20% in favor of mass transit. Since the fall of Communism BKV has been constantly plagued by lack of funding and its fleet grew very old (the average BKV bus is 15 years old). The degraded comfort and reduced speed of BKV public transport prompts more and more people to use a car, causing constant traffic jams in the narrow streets of Budapest.
